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

AIR SUPERIORITY
difference in speeds between bombers and fighters. If the fighters had throttled
back, they would have been vulnerable to sudden attack by enemy
fighters. Weaving, of course, severely cut down the effective combat radius
of the fighters. The type of escort provided was described as “close,” that
is, the fighters were obliged to keep near to the bomber formation and to
fend off enemy attacks. The escort was forbidden to pursue the enemy or
to sweep ahead or to the sides of the bomber formation on the assumption
that such tactics opened the bombers to enemy attack.64
Improved fuel capacity from increased internal tankage and the addition
of drop tanks helped greatly to increase the range of fighter escort.
Greater numbers helped as well. A larger fighter force, for example,
allowed the development of the relay system under which individual
formations of one or two groups would fly more or less direct courses to
prearranged rendezvous points along the course of the bombers. A P-51
group, for example, did not escort B-17s all the way to Berlin from the
coast of France. Instead, the Mustangs flew a direct course to a point a
few minutes short of the target where, if the navigation was correct
and the time-keeping of both forces accurate, they would meet the
bomber formation (from which a previous relay of P-47~ or P-38s was
de~arting).~~
Greater numbers also allowed a modification of escort techniques in
favor of offensive tactics. Beginning in January 1944 fighters no longer
stuck to the principle of “close” escort. After rendezvous, a fighter group
would deploy into one eight-plane section to provide top cover for the
bomber formation, two such sections to provide cover from each flank, and
one formation of squadron strength to range out to the front. The flanking
escort was allowed to move away from the formation to engage enemy
fighters flying on parallel courses waiting for a favorable opportunity to
attack. The lead squadron swept ahead, and increasingly, the escort was
encouraged to pursue enemy aircraft as they retired. “Area support” was a
further modification. Formations of fighters in one- or two-group strength
were assigned the task of sweeping ahead of the bombers to catch enemy
fighters as they were assembling their formations. By April fighters were
also returning from their escort relay by descending “to the deck’ and
carrying out strafing attacks on airfields.66
The effects of these developments on the tactical situation were
significant. They made it difficult for large formations of defenders to
assemble. They easily overpowered the slow and cumbersome twin-engine
fighters carrying rockets that had caused so much grief in 1943. The new
tactics greatly enlarged the zone of danger to the Luftwaffe fighters by
extending combat all the way back to airfields in the Reich. By early
spring of 1944, even Luftwaffe training fields scrambled their aircraft
during an air raid in order to avoid being caught on the ground by returning
escort fighters.
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