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

ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD WAR II
69. MID 461; Von Renz, “Development of German Antiaircraft Weapons,”
362; USAFE, “Post Hostilities Investigation,” 8:10, 12:7, fig. 61; Ley, Rockets,
Missiles and Space Travel, 395; Klee and Merk, Birth of Missiles, 68; and
Georgia Institute of Technology, Missile Catalog: A Compendium of Guided
Missiles and Seeker Information, April 1956, 110, 124, Redstone Scientific
Information Center, Huntsville, Ala. One source states that the HS 117 was
capable of a slant range of 24,000 yards and 35,000-foot altitude and that the
Germans fired 80 of these. See USAFE, “Post Hostilities Investigation,” 1, 12:6.
70. The V-2 was almost 47 feet long and had a takeoff weight of 28,229
pounds. See Ley, Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel, 390, 393.
71. Ibid.; USAFE, “Post Hostilities Investigation,” 12:5–6; and Klee and
Merk, Birth of Missiles, 66–68, 125.
72. MID 461; USSBS, “German Flak,” 1, 2, 5, 6, 19; Von Axthelm, Interrogation
Report, 44; Mix, “Significance of Anti-Aircraft Artillery,” 22; and Westermann,
Flak, 234, 292–93.
73. Army Air Forces Statistical Digest: World War II (Washington, D.C.: Office
of Statistical Control, December 1945), 255–56; and Hogg, Anti-Aircraft, 115.
74. Thomas Edwards and Murray Gelster, “The Causes of Bombing Errors
as Determined from Analysis of Eighth Air Force Combat Operations,” report
no. 3, Operations Analysis, AC/AS-3, Headquarters Army Air Forces, 15
July 1947, 3, 19, HRA; “Report by Mr. Butt to Bomber Command on His Examination
of Night Photographs, 18 August 1941,” in Charles Webster and
Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air War against Germany, 1939–1945, with
four annexes and appendices (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1961);
and minutes of the Flak Conference conducted at Headquarters United
States Strategic Air Forces in Europe (A-2), London, 1–11 June 1945, HRA.
75. A tighter formation might appear counterintuitive as it puts more aircraft
in one location, seemingly a better target. Operations analysis found,
however, that in fact the key was how fast the aircraft crossed over the flak
as the guns could only fire so many rounds in a given period. The quicker
the aircraft passed over the guns meant fewer rounds could be fired at them.
76. German sources indicate a three-fourths reduction, while US sources
use more modest figures ranging between one-fourth and two-thirds. See
USSBS, “German Flak,” 19; Harry Smith, “Flak Evasion,” Electronic Warfare,
April–May 1970, 18–19, 36; Eighth Air Force, “Reduction of Losses and Battle
Damage,” operational research report, 12 February 1944, 15, 50, HRA; and
Daniel Kuehl, “The Radar Eye Blinded: The USAF and Electronic Warfare,
1945–1955” (PhD diss., Duke University, 1992), 30.
77. Eighth Air Force, “Special Report of Operations in Support of First Allied
Airborne Army: 17–26 September 1944,” 9–13, HRA.
78. Albert Davis et al., 56th Fighter Group in World War II (Washington,
D.C.: Infantry Journal Press, 1948), 79–81; History, 56th Fighter Group,
summary report, 18 September 1944, HRA; John Tussell Jr., “Flak versus
Fighters,” Coast Artillery Journal, July–August 1946, 43; and Eighth Air
Force, “Special Report of Operations in Support of First Allied Airborne
Army,” 18, HRA.
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