T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I 1
morale having worn thin from repeated “dry runs,” stretches of bad
weather, and a frustrated desire to have at the enemy, needed badly
the stimulus that a successful mission would give them. Generals and
staff officers, conscious of public impatience at home for action in the
European theater and aware especially of the long-range strategic
planning that hinged on the successful initiation of daylight bombard-
ment, watched with intense interest not unmixed with concern. As
for the press, its representatives accurately sensed a good story in the
making.’*
At 1539 hours the twelve attacking planes were in the air, with
General Eaker riding in the Yankee Doodle, lead bomber of the sec-
ond flight of six. For over three hours privates and generals waited
at the base for the return of the Fortresses, sharing alike the common
suspense. Shortly before 1900 hours, watchers on the control tower
spotted a cluster of specks to the west of the airdrome-twelve of
them. At exactly 1900 the first B-17 settled down on the runway,
followed by the others. Pilots and mechanics swarmed out to meet the
incoming crews like, as one observer put it, the crowds a t a football
rally. Soon the word passed around: all bombs dropped on or close to
the target, no battle casualties, insignificant flak damage-in general, a
successful mi~sion.~’
This first combat mission flown by the Fortresses of VIII Bomber
Command could not have been more fortunately timed. Considerable
“polite doubt” had been expressed in British circles during the summer
of 1942 regarding the potentialities of the American bombers, and on
16 August, Peter Masefield, air correspondent to the Sunday Times,
gave voice to an opinion which left little doubt and which bristled
with “plain speaking.” ‘ O H e spoke of British satisfaction a t the pros-
pect of American aid in the bombing of Germany. But he also made
it perfectly plain that he considered the B-17 and B-24 quite unsuited
to the job of bombing over heavily defended enemy territory:
“American heavy bombers-the latest Fortresses and Liberators-are
fine flying machines, but not suited for bombing in Europe. Their
bombs and bomb-loads are small, their armour and armament are not
up to the standard now found necessary and their speeds are low.”
It was not simply that the American bombers could not perform the
day bombing mission for which they were being prepared. They were
likewise unsuited to night operations over Germany, and, in spite of
the general desire in the British Isles to see these aircraft take part in
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