Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

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ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD WAR II Figure 20. Ploesti smoke screen. The Germans used various defensive measures, including smoke screens, to defend the critical Ploesti refineries. The Romana American oil refinery is at the center right of this 17 August 1944 photo.The white dots are bomb craters. (Reprinted from USAF.) ting 19 bombs on target with good results. But, the Americans met stiff resistance, including 100 enemy aircraft; as a result, they lost nine dive bombers (seven to flak) and 14 of the escorting P-38s. American fighters claimed 28 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air. 57 In early April 1944, 178 heavy and 203 light guns protected Ploesti. The Germans bolstered this number to 278 heavy guns 32
ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD WAR II and 280 light guns by the time of the final attack on 19 August. The heavy guns consisted of 128 mm guns (10 percent), 105 mm mobile guns (15 percent), 88 mm mobile guns (60 percent), and Romanian 75 mm guns. They also captured Soviet 76.5 mm guns (15 percent). Flak took an increasing toll on American bombers, doubling from 1.2 percent of sorties in April to 2.4 percent in August, as losses to enemy aircraft declined from 2 percent of sorties to zero. 58 The Germans fiercely defended other oil facilities as well. At Politz, they deployed 600 heavy AAA weapons, and at Leuna, 700. At the latter, about 40 percent of the heavy weapons were larger than 88 mm guns. Between 12 May 1944 and 4 April 1945, the Allied airmen waged a bombing campaign against Leuna, Germany’s second largest synthetic oil and chemical plant. It clearly illustrated the power of massive antiaircraft protection during World War II. The AAF sent 5,236 bomber sorties, and the RAF sent 1,394 sorties that dropped 18,092 tons of bombs on the target. However, primarily because of weather and enemy opposition, only 10 percent of these bombs fell on the plant complex. Bombs on-target declined from 35 percent in May 1944 to 5 percent in July and finally to 1.5 percent in September. On three missions in October, the Germans reported that no bombs fell on the plant. The Americans lost 119 bombers (2.3 percent of sorties), while the British lost eight (.57 percent), mostly to German flak. 59 German cities were also heavily defended by flak. Hamburg’s defenses included 400 heavy guns, while almost 300 defended Munich, and 327 protected Vienna. The Allies hit the Austrian capital on 47 raids and lost 361 heavy bombers, 229 (63 percent) to flak. On 7 February 1945, the Fifteenth Air Force lost 25 of the 689 aircraft sent against Vienna (19 to flak). The Fifteenth Air Force hit the city again the next day; but this time, it lost none of its 470 bombers. The losses on the first raid were due to the clear weather that helped the gunners and to the Americans’ lack of airborne coordination and electronic countermeasures (ECM). The AAF attributed success on the following day to poorer weather (7/10 to 10/10 overcast) and better American coordination and ECM. 60 33
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Report Documentation Page Form Appr
Page 4 and 5: Air University Library Cataloging D
Page 6 and 7: Contents Chapter Page DISCLAIMER .
Page 8 and 9: CONTENTS Chapter Page 7 BALLISTIC M
Page 10 and 11: CONTENTS Figure Page 30 George Pred
Page 12 and 13: CONTENTS Figure Page 70 Blowpipe .
Page 14 and 15: Foreword Dr. Kenneth Werrell’s hi
Page 16 and 17: About the Author Dr. Kenneth P. Wer
Page 18 and 19: PREFACE excluded from the original
Page 20 and 21: PREFACE always been a factor in air
Page 22 and 23: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Artillery Institute
Page 24 and 25: ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD
Page 34 and 35: Figure 7. British 40 mm light antia
Page 92 and 93: FROM GUNS TO MISSILES American air
Page 94 and 95: FROM GUNS TO MISSILES company deliv
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Page 98 and 99: FROM GUNS TO MISSILES flak rockets
Page 100 and 101: FROM GUNS TO MISSILES 1953, the rat
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES Figure 40. Ar
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES cember 1958,
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Figure 42. Nike Hercules. The Nike
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES Airmen test-f
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES Bomarc failed
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES Despite knowl
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES Figure 47. Ha
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES Army decided
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES The third fam
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES with both les
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES that fired ov
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES Figure 53. Br
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES The two-decad
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES A. H. Peterso
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FROM GUNS TO MISSILES “SAMs Spur
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Chapter 3 Airmen versus Guerrillas:
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS the next y
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS war with t
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS Figure 56.
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS firings fr
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS and Navy c
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS American A
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS but modifi
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS In all, du
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS least an e
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS War Vietna
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS D.C.: Depa
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AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS 97, 121; a
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Chapter 4 Operations between Vietna
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OPERATIONS BETWEEN VIETNAM AND THE
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Chapter 5 Ballistic Missile Defense
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE Army cons
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE Figure 80
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Figure 81. Spartan launch. The Spar
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE a limited
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE these wer
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE ment to c
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE developin
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE Radar Int
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE when the
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE casualtie
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE fluential
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE missiles
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE psycholog
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE 6. Army O
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE April 196
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE 54. Reiss
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE 74. GWAPS
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Chapter 6 Ground-Based Air Defense
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GROUND-BASED AIR DEFENSE SINCE 1990
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Chapter 7 Ballistic Missile Defense
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BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE IN THE 19
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Figure 96. Arrow launch.The Arrow i
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Chapter 8 Summary, Trends, and Conc
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SUMMARY, TRENDS, AND CONCLUSIONS ev
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SUMMARY, TRENDS, AND CONCLUSIONS te
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SUMMARY, TRENDS, AND CONCLUSIONS EC
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Index A-1, 128, 227-28, 232 A-4, 12
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INDEX Convair, 98 Crotale, 158 D-da
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INDEX Gulf of Tonkin incident, 115
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INDEX Remagen, 24, 57, 270 RF-4C, 1
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INDEX SAM, 34, 74, 81-82, 84, 87, 9
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Archie to SAM A Short Operational H
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