September-October - Air Defense Artillery

easing the number of batteries engaging increased the
gnees of a kill. The high speed of the target (300 to 450
ph) prevented any adjustment of fire. Automatic weapons
d been removed to the rear, in a third belt. Note on the
r3phs the increase in the attacks as the first supply ships
Olered the harbor on November 28th. Sinking of one of
nose ships might' have disabled a large part of the harbor,
j ul no such damage was permitted.
An ominous lull came during the period just before the
ge, as the launching sites gained strength to support the
ulge and as the German supply routes were apparently
1 use to get up troops for their "Operation Greif." Then
~lh the old and entirely new sites in the northeast leaped
oto action as Rundstedt's men started moving on the 16th.
~ote the "Direction of Attack" graph. The defenses were
uickly shifted on the basis of previously- made plans. The
-utheast launching sites turned their attentions to Liege
nd thereafter the attack from the southeast, never more
han about 50% accurate in aim, was spasmodic. About a
~ourthof all the bombs came from this quarter, however.
The new nort.hea st sites offered the greatest threat, for
ut half of the 4,883 V-l's detected by the far-Hung warn-
~gservices came from this area, with 75% accuracy in be-
lilg headed for the eight-mile target area. They continued
l1 operation right up to the very last, apparently because
q hey were the easiest to supply. The chart of December
18thshows how the new attacks were met with strong deenses.
But these defenses didn't last long. Two days later,
IS shown on the next deployment chart, the number of batlions
was sharply reduced as seven out of fifteen Amerin
battalions moved to counter the German threat in the
rdennes.
V)
80
ctJ
~
~ 70
~
~ 60
~ 50
).....
-...J
~40
~30
~ 2e
~ 10
~0
"-
1 1
25 30
OCT. I NOV.
SOI'THEAST -
J1S
-
.)rl~
British units from Brussels were brought to Antwerp and
deployed, to bring up the diminished strength of the defenses.
Handicapped by lack of familiarity with both the
particular target and the American fire-control equipment
furnished them, they had an uphill fight-and they won.
Antwerp X had been under orders not to fire on ordinary
enemy planes, but those orders were modified as the
Luftwaffe made its famous January first effort and the defenders
shot down eight planes in one day. Simultaneously,
the seven battalions which had been sent to the break-
through area were proving the power of their training and
experience by shooting down commendable numbers of
piloted aircraft.
By the eleventh of January returning units permitted the
defenses to be reestablished in somewhat greater strength.
The accompanying diagram shows .the change effected.
Note the graph of the attacks. As the Bulge petered out, so
did the attacks, to a certain extent. It now seems that their
usefulness in support of Rundstedt was lessening and the
Germans were marshalling their forces for another and
greater V-bomb attempt.
Toward the last of December the exceptionally fine warning
services, principally British feeding through two American
operations rooms, detected a single V-I bearing down
on Antwerp from due north. Nothing more developed at
that time, however, although close watch was maintained
and plans were made to counter any further threat from
this quarter. The single V-I may have been plane-launched,
as many of those which reached London during this time
were. But the north did contain a threat which materialized
on January 27th, a month later.
At 2354 on that evening, a second Hying bomb was spotted
()f dl
1 I I
20 15 20
DEC. JAN. I .
NORTHEAST
1 1
15 20
FEB.
NORTH
1 1 1
10 15 20
MAR.