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

ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD WAR II
Figure 28. Chaff. Chaff was an effective counter used against radar beginning
in World War II. (Adapted from US Army Air Defense Museum.)
by as much as two-thirds, an overall estimate of one-fourth is
probably closer to the truth. 76
The AAF used more direct tactics as well. On the first day of
the Market-Garden operation, 17 September 1944, the AAF attacked
112 flak positions. In addition to over 3,000 tons of
bombs dropped by B-17s, P-47s dropped 36 tons of fragmentation
bombs and expended almost 123,000 rounds of .50-caliber
machine-gun ammunition. The relatively light losses suffered
by the attackers, the troop carriers, and gliders indicate that
the effort worked. 77 The element of surprise, however, may account
for Allied success, as the next day proved far different.
On 18 September 1944, 38 P-47s of the crack 56th Fighter
Group attacked German flak positions in the Turnhout area
with .50s and parachute fragmentation bombs. Disaster ensued.
Low overcast, haze, and orders requiring pilots to hold their
fire until fired upon inhibited the American pilots and put them
44