Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

6
Operation OVERLORD
W. A. Jacobs
On the 6th of June 1944, British and American forces launched Operation
OVERLORD, the invasion of Northwest Europe. Air superiority made a
vital contribution to the success of that invasion and the operations that
followed. It was a superiority that manifested itself in two quite distinct
ways. First, the Luftwaffe was unable to act with any decisive effect
against the landings and subsequent Allied operations. At best, it could
only mount nuisance raids at night. Second, the Allied air forces gained the
operational freedom to conduct reconnaissance and to attack lines of communication,
equipment, supplies, and enemy troops effectively.
When the planning for OVERLORD first began in 1943, two proven strategies
existed for gaining air superiority. The first, initially developed in the
First World War, concentrated on gaining superiority in a specific operational
area by air fighting. The second method, complementary to the first,
had been employed in each major campaign since 1939. The aim was to gain
superiority in a larger zone, including both the battle area and the lines of
communication leading to it, by a combination of air fighting and attacks on
the operational infrastructure of the enemy air force-its airfields, maintenance
services, and supply system. In each case, the object was to gain the
freedom to conduct one’s own air operations while denying that freedom to
the enemy.
There were serious problems, however, in applying these two strategies
to Operation OVERLORD. Chief among them was the fact that the
Luftwaffe’s airfields in France were closer to the invasion beaches than
were the Allied fields located in southern England. That greatly reduced
the time each Allied fighter could spend over the battle area, a grave dis-
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