Piercing the Fog - Air Force Historical Studies Office

Piercing the Fog
sance, they concentrated on offensive strikes against Axis airfields as the most
effective means to achieve air supremacy. When RAF Middle East passed on
intelligence that the Lujlwaffe was concentrating aircraft at a single field at
Caste1 Benito, XI1 Bomber Command struck with thirteen B-17s and a heavy
P-38 escort and claimed 14 enemy aircraft destroyed, 3 probably destroyed, and
1 damaged. A similar attack on El Aouina four days later resulted in 12 aircraft
destroyed, 19 damaged, and an ammunition dump exploded.z6
During Eighth Army’s attack on the German-held Mareth Line in southern
Tunisia, NATAF focused its entire effort on Axis airfields to free the Western
Desert Air Force (the British component of NATAF), allowing it to concentrate
on ground support missions.z7 When visual reconnaissance showed the enemy
in full daytime retreat, the Allied tactical air forces quickly shifted focus. On
April 7 fighters destroyed more than 200 motor vehicles; a similar effort
followed the next day, before bad weather provided the retreating forces with
natural cover. By the middle of March, the enemy offered little air opposition.
Axis fighters that remained in Tunisia were increasingly dedicated to sporadic
attacks on Allied ground forces.258
While NATAF concentrated on Tunisian airfields, the NASAF’S heavy
bombers were at work against enemy airfields outside Tunisia. Based largely
on information from ULTRA, supplemented by photoreconnaissance and agent
reports, Doolittle’s men raided airfields around Palermo and elsewhere in Sicily.
By April, NASAF shifted its attention primarily to bases in Sicily, Sardinia, and
Italy.25Y In part, these effoits were preparations for Operation HUSKY, the
upcoming amphibious assault on Sicily. They had another purpose as well. With
Allied air and surface forces strangling the movement of supplies by sea, the
Axis turned increasingly to air transport. German airlift became a new priority
for air operations. On April 4th, for example, a large-scale attack by B-17s
against Capodichino airdrome destroyed or damaged 25 of the 50 transport
aircraft caught on the ground.260
The most spectacular single strike against the air shuttle effort occurred in
early April. In mid-March, in preparation for a massive operation designed to
destroy transports and their escorts in the air and on the ground, NASAF
intelligence began monitoring Axis air transport movements across the Straits
of Sicily to Tunis. ULTRA provided information on cargo, routes, timing,
departure and arrival airfields, and defensivemeasures. Y intercepts contributed
details on tactical control and procedures. These were supplemented by weather
and photoreconnaissance missions, reports from bomber and fighter crews, and
POW interrogations. Routine strikes continued, but the Allied commanders
made special efforts not to tip off the enemy to the impending blow.
NASAF launched Operation FLAX on April 5th. Throughout the day, 287
sorties by B-l7s, B-26s, and P-38s attackedenemy transports and theirescorts,
dropped fragmentation bombs on airfields in Sicily and Tunisia, and even
damaged a merchant convoy. At a cost of 6 aircraft, NASAF claimed 201
168