<text id=00he0809><title>Launch of the Big Raid</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Launch of the Big Raid</hdr><body>
<p>LeMay's wing got off on schedule; weather delayed the departure of Williams' force for about five hours, a very costly delay. There was a mix-up in escort force rendezvous; LeMay later wrote that they "... never saw a P-47 or a Spitfire. Our fighter escort had black crosses on their wings !" But he was in the lead plane, a B-17F of the 96th Bomb Group, and may not have seen the escorts from that forward position. The planes reached their bombing altitudes between 17,000 and 20,000 ft (5,180 and 6,096 m) about 20 minutes before they left the coast of England.
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<p>The 4th BW arrived at the target with 127 of its B17s still in formation, and dumped their mixed loads of 500-lb general-purpose bombs and 250-lb British incendiaries within 19 minutes. The 300 tons of bombs smothered the buildings, hitting every one, and nearly demolishing five of the six main structures.
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<p>The Regensburg raiders continued south, crossed the Alps and the Mediterranean, and landed at Telergma to find a nearly deserted base with most of its support equipment gone. The plan to turn around there, carefully developed by LeMay on an earlier trip specifically for that purpose, had been completely forgotten in the moves of war in North Africa. So the crews turned to, aided by the few local technicians still on station, and readied their reduced fleet for the return trip to England.
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<p>The Schweinfurt force of 230 dispatched Fortresses fought their way to the target, got 183 B-17s over the primary, and dropped about 425 tons of mixed incendiaries, 500-lb and 1,000-lb GP bombs in about 12 minutes. Then they turned toward England, picking up their escorts on the way back. The fighters were badly outnumbered by an angry and well-directed Luftwaffe, and the toll was heavy.
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<p>LeMay's crews managed to get 85 bombers headed back home from North Africa a week later. They had been assigned a mission for the return flight: bomb the aerodrome at Merignac, near Bordeaux, because it was the base for the Luftwaffe's Fw 200 long-range bombers that preyed on Atlantic convoys. Besides, it was on the way back. But only 58 bombed the target; three were lost, and the rest of the force made it back to England.
