01x12 - Battle for The Skies

[bunniefuu]

In 1942 and into 1943,

hundreds of thousands of Americans

descend on the east of England

to live, fight, and maybe die

in the joint effort to defeat
n*zi Germany from the air.

Combat at 25,000 feet
and 300 miles per hour

has never been attempted before.

The physical, mental,
and emotional challenges

will be unique.

Victory in World w*r II
will be largely determined

by who controls the skies,

the German Luftwaffe or
the Allied Air Forces.

[suspenseful music]

All wars changed the world,

but none of them changed the world

like the Second World w*r did.

Japan's on the march,
Germany's on the march.

[suspenseful music]

No one can imagine the nightmare
they're about to unleash,

the most destructive
w*r in human history.

Suddenly, the world
is turned upside down

and all hell is let loose.

The West is stunned by
the speed of the advance.

[dramatic music]

You get the Allies
led by the big three:

Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin,

men who are dealing with

immensely complicated questions.

It's the biggest military
operation of human history.

The Allies have to come together,

not just militarily,
but industrial scale.

It's a global perspective.

They have to fight in every climate,

from the Arctic to the
jungles of the Pacific,

to the deserts of Africa,
and the depths of the ocean.

[dramatic music]

But there was no certainty of victory.

It was going to be a
horrific bloodbath.

We see humans at their absolute worst,

how they treat other human beings.

And we see them at their absolute best,

willing to give their lives
that others might live.

World w*r II was a struggle

in which there could be one victor

and one vanquished.

[dramatic music]

[expl*si*n booming]

[siren blaring]

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] 1942, the Third Reich

is building elaborate
coastal defenses in Europe.

As they continue to battle
the Soviets in the East,

the Germans know that
it's only a matter of time

before Britain and America
attack from the west.

From the English channel
to the plains of Russia,

Germany controls most of Europe.

[dramatic music]

Hitler has turned Europe

into an apparently
impregnable fortress.

But as people said at the time,

yes, but he forgot to
put a roof over it.

And the Allied bombers are
going to take advantage of that.

[pensive music]

[Tom] In the First World w*r,

both sides bombed each
other to little effect.

But as aviation evolves,
a new concept of warfare

develops in the 1920s and '30s...

strategic bombing.

Its proponents are a group of officers

from the US Air Corps Tactical School.

They come to be known
as the b*mber Barons.

[Robert] The theory is

we'll use this novel weapon in a
novel way,

not to attack the enemy's armies,

to attack the enemy's homeland,

his factories,

his infrastructure,

destroying his economy,

and thus making it
impossible for the enemy

to make w*r.

These air power advocates

say this is a better way to fight w*r.

No need for that horrible trench
deadlock from World w*r I.

That's the old way.

The new way is strategic bombing.

[pensive music]

East Anglia is the England
of little churches,

hedges, fields, medieval buildings,

and it's turned into one gigantic

aircraft carrier.

[Tom] In the spring of 1942,

the US Eighth Air Force
begins construction

on dozens of air bases,

transforming a quiet
corner of East England

into one of the most vital fronts

of the entire Second World w*r.

[dramatic music]

[Dan S.] It's flat, it's
perfect for airfields.

[propeller whirring] [dramatic music]

So you get this massive, massive
influx of American bombers

carrying the most destructive
weapons ever produced,

and just as strikingly,

young American airmen.

[suspenseful music]

They all had grown up dreaming
of flying above the clouds

at over 300 miles per hour,

something their parents
and grandparents

could never imagine.

And all of a sudden,
here's this opportunity.

The English used to
complain, they're oversexed,

they're overpaid, and
they're over here.

[dramatic music]

[plane engine rumbling]

[Tom] The Royal Air Force

has been striking the German
homeland for two years.

Take off, off you go, off you go, over.

[b*mber rumbling]

[Tom] Prime Minister Winston Churchill

understands how important such
raids are for British morale.

But the RAF pays a grievous cost.

In these early months of the w*r,

there were raids with hardly
any aircraft coming back.

And the most important
lesson they took away from it

is that daytime bombing

was a very hazardous
thing to undertake.

[pensive music]

[suspenseful music]

[Dan S.] Arthur Harris is
the man put in charge

of Britain's b*mber Command.

And it's his idea to
switch to night bombing,

to use night as a cloak to
protect these b*mber forces

so that they can drop their bombs

and they have a better
chance of making it home.

[explosions banging]

[Robert] So what they're doing
is merely area bombing.

They're flying over
German cities at night

and letting loose their b*mb loads.

And that means civilian casualties.

[dramatic music]

[Dan S.] There's a lot of retribution

in this British strategy.

The Blitz had smashed
British cities and factories

in the winter of 1940-41.

And the Brits plan to smash
German society so badly

that it knocks them out of the w*r.

They sowed the wind,

and now they are going
to reap the whirlwind.

[pensive music]

[Tom] Meeting in Casablanca,

President Roosevelt, Prime Minister
Churchill and their staffs

strategize how to continue
the Allied as*ault

on the Third Reich.

[Robert] One of the major outcomes
of the Casablanca Conference

is the Allies declared
unconditional surrender

as their w*r aim.

But something else happens
at Casablanca as well,

an argument on air strategy

between the British and Americans.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] The US Army Air Force,

particularly its commander,
General Henry Hap Arnold,

insists that daylight precision bombing

on critical wartime industries
will be more effective.

[Robert] And as so often
in World w*r II,

American expectations come up
against British experience.

Churchill is gonna go
to FDR and tell him that,

"Look, your daylight precision
stuff, it's not gonna work.

We tried it, it didn't work.

That's why we are doing
bombing operations at night.

And that is the way forward."

Well, Hap Arnold gets wind of this.

[dramatic music]

Arnold's a pioneer in aviation,

taught by the Wright
brothers how to fly,

and he is a believer
in strategic air power.

And when the British say,

"Hey, you guys should b*mb
at night just like we do,"

he says, "No, no, air power
could be used in a better way."

[Tom] The American plan
rests on a cutting-edge device,

the Norden bombsight.

[pensive music]

The Norden bombsight
is an analog computer.

You punch in various data:
wind speed, altitude,

wind direction, air pressure,

and it correlates all
those things together

and tells you exactly
when to drop the b*mb.

According to the advertising slogans,

it can drop a b*mb in a
pickle barrel at 18,000 feet.

[Tom] Americans claimed
the Norden bombsight,

which requires daylight
and clear weather,

promises greater precision

and therefore fewer
civilian casualties.

[A.J.] So Henry Arnold and his
advisors come up with this plan,

the Combined b*mber Offensive,

which means the British
bombing at night

and the Americans bombing
precision targets

during the day.

[Col. Douds] The Americans
are gonna sell it as this

round the clock bombing.

And this utterly appeals to Churchill,

with the idea that his adversary
will never catch a break.

[dramatic music] [plane rumbling]

[Tom] Attacking an
enemy from 25,000 feet

presents unique challenges.

[b*mber rumbling]

Temperatures dip below


If an airman's supply of oxygen

is cut off for more than 60 seconds,

he will die.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] You look out the
window as a crewman on a B-17

and you begin to see black puffs.

[suspenseful music]

And they might not look too dangerous.

[expl*si*n banging]

Until one actually makes contact.

[Martin] The most infamous
German weapon of them all

was the Flak 88 millimeter g*n.

[anti-aircraft g*n firing]

It's capable of sending


to altitudes approaching 30,000 feet.

[suspenseful music]

[anti-aircraft g*n firing]

[Col. Douds] The dilemma with flak is

you can't maneuver to avoid it,

so the best you can do is sit
tight and grit your teeth.

[suspenseful music]

Once the flak stops, there's silence.

It's a deathly silence because
they know what's coming.

[Pilot] There's four
of 'em, one o'clock high.

[Gunner] They're coming around.

[suspenseful music]

[John] German fighter pilots
are seasoned combat veterans.

Many of them have hundreds of kills

'cause they've been engaged
in this w*r since 1939.

[Col. Douds] The best way to
k*ll a German fighter

is to send Allied fighters
to sh**t them down.

But when the United States
starts to b*mb Germany proper,

their fighters don't have the range

to be able to escort bombers
all the way to a target.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] So the B-17 is
bristling with machine g*ns

around the fuselage of the aircraft.

[b*mber rumbling]

[Pilot] Three planes,
nine o'clock, coming around.

[machine g*n firing]
[suspenseful music]

[Pilot] Too fast, six
o'clock up, coming in.

[machine g*n firing]

[John] It really is a flying fortress.

[machine g*n firing]

[A.J.] b*mber crews were these
interdependent societies

in which every person was dependent

upon the person sitting next to 'em

and the person sitting behind them.

[Pilot] Breaking 11, breaking 11.

[Gunner] I got him.

[machine g*n firing]
[suspenseful music]

[Pilot] B-17 out of
control at three o'clock.

C'mon, you guys, get out
that plane, bail out.

Come on, get out of there.

[suspenseful music] [bombers rumbling]

[John] A few miles from
the actual target,

the b*mber will start
what's called the b*mb run.

It's all done visually.

You have to hold
altitude, hold air speed,

and hold heading so the
bombardier can dial in

on the Norden bombsight.

'Cause if you don't hit the target,

you gotta come back again.

[machine g*n firing]
[fighter planes roaring]

[Robert] w*r sometimes breaks down to

individual moments of terror.

[suspenseful music]
[fighter plane roaring]

[machine g*n firing]

You're watching other planes

being literally blown out of the sky.

And you have to drop
the bombs with precision

and then make it out
again on the way home.

[Bombardier] Bombs away!

[bombs whistling]

[explosions booming] [bombers rumbling]

[pensive music]

[Tom] In combat conditions,

the accuracy of the Norden bombsight

is not as precise as
the Air Force predicted.

The casualties are
greater than they feared.

[pensive music]

[plane rumbling]

These missions would come
back with 10, 20% losses.

And of course the pilots
are highly trained,

highly technical people that
are very difficult to replace.

[dramatic music]

[Dan S.] No one in history has
ever tried strategic bombing

on this scale before.

As generals, and
strategists, and air marshals

are working out the future of air w*r,

these man are guinea pigs.

[dramatic music]

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Mission by mission,

the Eighth Air Force
slowly develops the methods

needed to damage their
intended targets.

But Adolf Hitler's
attention remains fixed

on his battle with the Soviets.

[Martin] He had seen the
German losses back in 1940

when the Luftwaffe
was attacking England.

And to him it looked
like strategic air power

doesn't win wars,
ground forces win wars.

So Hitler's viewpoint
about an air force

is that it exists to
support the ground troops.

[pensive music]

[Tom] With the loss at Stalingrad,

including the capture
of his entire 6th Army,

Hitler is focused on the Eastern Front.

But the Allied raids

do alarm Luftwaffe air
marshal Hermann Göring.

[pensive music]

[Robert] Göring is hearing
from his local

and regional Luftwaffe commanders

that they really need
more fighter aircraft.

But in a sense, Göring's trapped.

If he detaches air power
from the Eastern Front,

a situation that is already critical

is soon going to turn mortal.

[dramatic music]

[John] The Germans now are
gonna streamline procedures

and make things more efficient.

They start producing more
aircraft, more armaments

in the middle of the
Combined b*mber Offensive.

So from 1943 on, there's
an exponential increase

in German industrial output.

[Robert] With German fighter
production on the upswing,

the Allied government is
becoming increasingly concerned

and they're getting a little tired

of hearing their airmen say,

"We can bring Germany to its knees,"

when they don't see any
evidence that that's true.

[dramatic music]

[Tom] In May, Churchill
and Roosevelt meet

to finalize plans in the Mediterranean.

They also commit

to a cross-channel invasion of France.

[Robert] Since America came
into the w*r,

they've had a strategy

to land a gigantic force
somewhere in Northwestern France

and then driving straight
into the heart of Germany.

[Tom] Code named Operation Overlord,

the attack is scheduled for
spring of the next year.

Achieving air supremacy
over occupied Europe

is crucial to the
success of the invasion.

[Col. Douds] At this point,

everybody recognizes amphibious
operations can't happen

unless you control the seas
and have control of the air.

So the top commanders all agree

that the number one priority
is destroying the Luftwaffe.

[Dan S.] And that means the
b*mber force is given the job

of smashing the infrastructure

of the Luftwaffe on the ground,

so that when the Allies land on D-Day

and in the ground
fighting that follows,

there'll be no German
aircraft interfering.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] The RAF and Eighth
Air Force join efforts

for what they term Blitz Week,

attacks on various
cities across Germany.

Their first joint target is
a busy port with dockyards,

submarine pens, and manufacturing.

It's also a home to
over a million people.

[suspenseful music]

[Dan S.] Hamburg is a real
center of aircraft production.

So for the Americans,

there's lots of specific
military industrial targets

they can attack.

But the Brits look at the
types of housing there

and they think they're
very vulnerable to fire.

So they're going to burn neighborhoods.

They're gonna de-house German people.

And that means workers
are gonna be k*lled,

factories will grind to a halt,

supply chains will break down

[Tom] It's codenamed
Operation Gomorrah,

after the Old Testament city

that was destroyed by fire from above.

[Col. Douds] This is gonna be
eight days and seven nights of

pounding the city of Hamburg.

[Robert] It's very carefully planned.

First, there are high
expl*sives to blow out windows,

to blow out roofs, to
knock down buildings.

And they'll drop incendiaries,
smaller bombs, that just...

...burn like firecrackers.

And with these roof tiles gone,

the wooden structure of
the roofs is exposed,

and these little incendiaries
will land in those roofs

and just set fires.

[Robert] The British want
revenge on Hamburg for the Blitz.

The Americans have been singing

the strategic bombing song for years,

and now they can show
the destructive nature

of the Combined b*mber Offensive

to wipe a city off the map.

[pensive music]

[Tom] In the summer of 1943,

Allied air forces launched Blitz Week,

the largest series of
raids on Germany to date.

[Robert] The British and
American air forces

have supposedly been working together,

the British bombing by
night, the US by day.

But they haven't been bombing
the same target cities.

That changes in the summer of 1943.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] The Allies' first joint target

is the city of Hamburg.

On the night of July


[suspenseful music]

The RAF drops incendiary bombs.

[explosions banging]

But in the following days,

American B-17s are unable
to hit their targets.

[dreary music]

[Robert] The Americans intended to b*mb
aircraft factories,

but the use of incendiaries
created so much smoke

that the Norden bombsights
were essentially blinded.

[Col. Douds] They can't
actually see their targets.

So they're almost reduced
to doing area bombing,

not unlike the British.

[b*mber roaring]

[Tom] On July 27th, a heat
wave sends temperatures soaring

as the RAF returns for a
fourth night of strikes.

[suspenseful music]

[John] It's very hot,

it's very dry, and the
meteorological conditions

are ripe for firestorm.

[fire blaring]

This time the fires burn so hot

the oxygen that these fires
demand causes a windstorm.

Winds are over 150 miles an hour.

[Dan S.] The firestorm works a
little bit like a blast furnace.

It's a localized weather system

that will see that fire spread

at the speed of a galloping horse.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] A gigantic updraft results

that robs people cowering
in their shelters of oxygen

and leads to death by asphyxiation.

[suspenseful music]

[Dr. Grant] Temperatures go up
to a thousand degrees Celsius.

[fire blaring]

It's the most devastating firestorm

that's ever been created.

[Dan C.] Stories are of people
trying to run out of shelters

with children near them, burning,

with their hands and feet
stuck in melting asphalt,

with the buildings falling
down on top of them.

[Dan S.] The city of Hamburg

is devastated.

[pensive music]

[Tom] Operation Gomorrah
kills over 40,000 civilians.

Almost 2/3 of the city's houses
are burned to the ground,

leaving a million residents homeless.

[Dan S.] Churchill is worried about

the human cost of what they're doing.

He's worried about how
history will look at it.

[Dan C.] And there's a line
from Churchill supposedly,

where he looks at some
of the movies of Hamburg,

and goes, "Are we beasts?"

The striking thing about air power

is it makes all of us combatants.

It's not just about the b*ttlefield.

The b*ttlefield is actually
civilian populations.

[Tom] The destruction
stuns n*zi high command.

[pensive music]

One of Hitler's ministers tells him

that "Hamburg put the
fear of God in me."

But Hitler refuses to visit the city

or receive a delegation of civilians

who had saved lives during the fire.

Hamburg is a shock to the
entire German w*r effort.

Göring has told Hitler repeatedly

that he had this b*mber
problem under control,

and now here lies the second
largest city in Germany

in ashes.

[Tom] Accounts of
the bombing of Hamburg

spread throughout Germany.

Hitler begins to transfer
German fighter planes

from the Eastern Front
and the Mediterranean

to the fatherland.

[planes rumbling]

[pensive music]

[Robert] In addition, the
Germans ring their major cities

with these gigantic
monumental flak towers,


thick concrete walls,

bristling with g*ns.

Not only are they highly effective

against incoming bombers,

their g*ns barking the sound and fury

remind the people that Hitler
is looking out for them.

[anti-aircraft g*n firing]

[fighter plane roaring]

[pensive music]

[Dan S.] Back in Britain,

there was big disagreement at the time

with how the raid on Hamburg goes.

From Harris's point of view,
this is a w*r-winning strategy,

that if you hit people hard enough,

you can cause a breakdown
of their will to fight.

[Robert] But for Arnold,
Hamburg was not a success.

It proved the inefficiency
of area bombing.

He wants to strike precise targets,

the factories that are keeping
the Luftwaffe in the air.

[pensive music]

[Col. Douds] Henry Arnold thinks

strategic bombing can work.

We just need to do it harder.

[dramatic music]

[Tom] The combined American-British
raid on Hamburg levels a city

but does little
to destroy the Luftwaffe

before the invasion of Europe.

By August of 1943,

the Eighth Air Force is receiving enough
planes and personnel to launch

the large formations required

to decimate German aircraft production.

b*mber Baron theory is about
to be put into practice.

What is keeping the
Luftwaffe in the air

are the factories behind it.

That's what Arnold wants to strike.

And he thinks the way to do that

is to double down on
daylight precision bombing,

more planes, more raids, more
attacks on the same target

until the Germans break.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Arnold now demands maximum effort

from the Eighth Air Force.

[plane roaring]

[planes rumbling]

Normally there are planes
that are being worked on,

or repaired, or air
crew that are resting,

so that every now and
then they get a day off.

But now when you go maximum effort,

it means you put everything
in the air every time.

[Tom] Previously, around 90
B-17s would fly each mission,

but that number will
soon double and triple.

[dramatic music]

The Americans are obsessed

with this view of the German economy

as a series of interconnected
hubs and spokes.

So if they hit the right
domino, they'll all come down.

[Dr. Grant] These are called
bottleneck industries,

industries where just a
few plants and locations

control all the production.

[Robert] Bombing bottleneck targets

seems to be a more efficient
use of your air force.

One big raid, one factory destroyed,

a crucial sector of the
German w*r economy crippled.

[Col. Douds] Probably the
most consequential

bottleneck industry with
regards to the Luftwaffe

is ball bearings.

[pensive music]

Anything that moves
needs a ball bearing.

Anything that turns
needs a ball bearing,

including German aircraft engines,

propellers turning, landing wheels,

and also all the machines and machinery

that build those products.

So it's a twofer.

[dramatic music]

[Tom] On August 17th,
one year to the day

from their first attack
on occupied Europe,

the Eighth Air Force
launches a dual raid.

The first strike on Regensburg

is meant to draw off German fighters

so that the rest of the force
can hit the primary target,

Germany's largest ball bearing
factory in Schweinfurt.

Three weeks later,

the Eighth strikes another
plant in Stuttgart.

In these raids alone,

the Eighth loses
nearly a hundred planes

and a thousand crew k*lled or captured.

Ball bearing production is interrupted,

but only temporarily.

[Robert] The Allies are always
surprised at how rapidly

the Germans rebuild their
cities and factories.

[dramatic music]

But they do so with this almost
inexhaustible supply of sl*ve labor.

Prisoners of w*r in the
hundreds of thousands.

They're barely fed.

When one dies, they
can be simply discarded

and another one put in their place.

[Tom] Forced laborers
from occupied countries

are ordered by the Nazis to
reconstruct German factories.

[Col. Douds] They also dispersed

the German aircraft industry

so that it can't be taken
out in any one strike

'cause it's not all in one place.

And they put it underground.

They used old salt mines.

They used old quarries.

[Martin] Now you can't hit it.

Now you can't b*mb it.

There is nothing you can do

because you can't b*mb a
facility when it's underground.

[Col. Douds] This ultimately
means German aircraft production

will continue to increase.

[Tom] By the fall of 1943,

the Eighth Air Force is bombing targets
deep inside the Reich

and returning to ones
they've already hit.

[bombers rumbling]

In early October,

they fly a
series of maximum effort raids,

including a second strike
on the plant in Schweinfurt,

all in a single week.

[pensive music]

[Robert] There is a limit

to how much the human psyche can take.

And on many occasions, b*mber
crews reach that limit.

[suspenseful music]

You're five miles up and you're
braving death every second.

[expl*si*n booming]

Fighters, flak, fighters, flak.

[expl*si*n booming]

An adrenaline rush overloading
your nervous system.

[machine g*n firing]

[expl*si*n booming]

And then you land.

And it's quiet.

You're back at a base in East Anglia.

You have a hot meal.

You sleep in a comfortable bed.

And then maybe you'd
do it again tomorrow.

[suspenseful music] [bombers rumbling]

- More fighters, more flak.
- [expl*si*n booming]

You think you were gonna die


of this b*mb raid.

[b*mber rumbling] [expl*si*n booming]

And that night you'd be...

drinking scotch with a couple
of friends at the commissary.

It was almost impossible to reconcile.

The longer you did it,

you would become more and more aware

of how vulnerable you were.

[pensive music]

[Tom] By the end of the month,

the Eighth Air Force has
endured horrific losses.

The men call it Black October.

[Robert] If you're an American airman,

you have a 20% chance of being k*lled

on any mission you undertake.

One in five, that is forbidding math.

Adding to that,

they don't appear to be
having an appreciable impact

on the German w*r effort,

leading to an incipient
collapse of airman morale.

[Col. Douds] They start to see
the losses around them and go,

"We're just gonna fly
until we're dead."

[b*mber rumbling]

[expl*si*n booming]

[machine g*n firing]
[expl*si*n booming]

[dramatic music]

[Tom] A series of American
raids in Black October

shows the cost of daytime
precision bombing.

[John] The loss rates,

the limitations of
the Norden bombsight,

the weather, all these
things play in the factor

in how ineffective the
bombing campaign is in 1943.

You could easily say that the Luftwaffe

still owned the skies over Germany.

[Tom] In the late fall,

bad weather forces the Eighth
Air Force to suspend missions,

giving ground crews the winter
to patch battered planes.

[pensive music]

[bombers rumbling]

But the RAF launches its
largest campaign yet,

a sustained as*ault on Berlin.

[Col. Douds] These are gonna
be massive raids,



[plane engine rumbling]

[Robert] The British goal over Berlin

is to destroy German morale.

That's the way to beat Germany,

not to destroy individual factories.

Harris thinks these Berlin raids

will cost 4 to 500 bombers,

but they'll cost Germany the w*r.

[suspenseful music]

[explosions booming]

[Tom] The RAF winter raids to Berlin...

push the limit and stamina
of British air crews,

with modest results.

[g*n firing]

[explosions cracking] [g*n firing]

[expl*si*n booming]

[ominous music]

[Col. Douds] Harris is
presciently accurate.

They lose 400 to 500 aircraft
and almost 5,000 airmen.

[Robert] The Berlin bombing
campaign is an epic effort

but unfortunately an epic failure.

Both air forces are finding their plans

are not corresponding with reality.

They're having almost no
impact on the Luftwaffe at all.

They're simply getting more
of their plane shot down

and more of their crewmen
k*lled or captured.

[dramatic music]

[Tom] After months of heavy losses,

the Eighth Air Force
is at a crossroads.

[Dr. Grant] Arnold realizes
the bombers can't do it alone.

If he wants these bombers to
make a difference in this w*r,

he's got to send fighters
to the target with them.

[b*mber rumbling]

[Martin] The Allied air forces
have the P-38 Lightning

and the P-47 Thunderbolt,

two absolutely excellent
fighter aircraft

capable of dog fighting

just about as well as
anything else in the sky.

- [fighter planes rumbling]
- They only had one limitation...

and that was range.

[fighter planes rumbling]

[John] At the time,
aeronautical engineers

believed having an
aircraft that could fly

almost a thousand miles
into Germany and back,

with enough firepower,

enough maneuverability,

enough engine power,

is an engineering impossibility.

[dramatic music]

[Tom] But a new fighter
is already being produced

by the United States for the British,

the P-51 Mustang.

[John] And the Brits test
fly it, and they go,

"Thanks, it's okay."

[fighter plane rumbling]

Below 15,000 feet, it's fine,

but we're looking for
something higher altitude.

[fighter plane rumbling]

Then we get the idea of putting a
Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in this thing.

So you have a British-made
engine, an American airframe,

made it together, and it's gangbusters.

[fighter plane rumbling]

[Col. Douds] That's when it
turns into this magical machine.

[fighter plane rumbling]

It's fast, it flies high.

It's so efficient that
it could escort a b*mber

all the way to downtown
Berlin and back.

It's the equivalent

or better than anything
the Germans have.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] The Americans and
British are allies,

but in many ways they've been
working at cross purposes,

especially in the air campaign.

But now the US and British w*r efforts

come together to produce an aircraft

that is greater than
the sum of its parts.

It's the embodiment

of the Anglo-American
coalition in World w*r II.

[fighter plane rumbling]

[Anand] The P-51 is a game-changer,

but it requires, mind you,

an entire rethink of
American aerial doctrine.

[suspenseful music]

[Dan S.] Allied planners realized

that if they threaten targets

that are essential to
the German w*r efforts

and they force the Germans

to send up fighters to
protect those targets,

the P-51s can pounce
and sh**t them down.

[machine g*n firing]

[expl*si*n booming]

[Dr. Grant] The Allies have
started out thinking B-17s

will destroy the German
air force on the ground.

By early 1944, they realized the P-51

is going to destroy the
German Air Force

in the air.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Knowing that command
of the air is crucial

to the upcoming cross channel invasion,

Allied air forces launch
Operation Argument,

a five-day series of bombing
raids over major German cities.

[dramatic music]

[bombers rumbling]

[Dr. Grant] This is the critical hour

for the Combined b*mber Offensive

because the Allies now know

that they're approaching the
time for the D-Day landings.

- [fighter planes rumbling]
- They need to draw up the Luftwaffe

so that the P-51 can
destroy it in the skies.

[fighter planes rumbling]

The plan is to send
thousands of bombers

knowing that the Luftwaffe
will have no choice

but to send everything
it has up in the skies

to defend the homeland.

So in a way, the bombers are the bait.

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Fitted with extra
fuel tanks, the P-51 Mustangs

are capable of penetrating
deep into Germany.

[fighter planes roaring]

Their primary mission has
been protecting the bombers.

Now they're ordered to actively
pursue German fighters,

even if it leaves the
formations vulnerable.

[fighter planes rumbling]

[John] The mission of the
American fighters

is to be aggressive

and go after the Luftwaffe
in the air to k*ll them

in any way, shape, or form.

[machine g*n firing]

[suspenseful music]

[Tom] Operation Argument,
known as Big Week,

begins a battle of attrition

between the Allied air
forces and the Luftwaffe.

[machine g*n firing]
[expl*si*n booming]

[machine g*n firing]
[expl*si*n booming]

The success of the upcoming invasion

hangs in the balance.

[expl*si*n booming] [pensive music]

[John] The United States is gonna lose

about a quarter of the Eighth
Air Force in that fight.

The Germans are gonna lose

about a third of their fighter force

and 18% of their fighter pilots.

This is something the
Allies can sustain,

the Germans cannot.

[suspenseful music]

[Robert] From the US perspective,

this is a w*r economy

that is churning out hundreds
and hundreds of heavy bombers

every day of the year.

Young men are signing up in droves.

And so the cold-blooded calculation

is that no matter how
heavy US losses are,

America can replace
its planes and pilots.

[suspenseful music]
[machine g*n firing]

[expl*si*n booming]

[Tom] In the month after Big Week,

American fighters down more
German planes over Europe

than in the previous two years.

[suspenseful music]

The Luftwaffe is being
destroyed in the air

and on the ground.

[Col. Douds] It's really this
symbiosis.

Mustangs, they're
k*lling German fighters,

which means the bombers
can now be more accurate,

which means they're doing a better job

of attacking the German
aircraft industry.

[explosions booming]

It's a cycle that's
destroying the Luftwaffe.

[machine g*n firing]
[expl*si*n booming]

[Tom] By June, 1944,

there are few experienced
Luftwaffe pilots left alive.

[John] By the time the D-Day
comes, the Allies own the air.

That's why you see very
few Luftwaffe fighters

over the beaches of
Normandy on June 6th, 1944.

[bombers rumbling]

[pensive music]

[Tom] Control of the air
is decisively established.

The Luftwaffe will be incapable

of opposing the upcoming
Allied invasion.

But again, the cost is high.

[somber music]

Fewer than a quarter of British
and American b*mber crews

survive the campaign.

[Robert] The tragedy of the
air w*r is that the b*mber crews

were essentially testing
out an unproven theory.

[Dan C.] Anytime you're
talking about high technology

and cutting-edge weaponry,

there is an element of
experimentation involved.

And some of the ways, unfortunately,

that you learn in w*r is by dying.

Sometimes in wartime, there's
no other way to learn.

[Robert] When both the British

and American air
forces worked together,

bombers and fighters together,

they proved to be the most
effective aerial instrument

of w*r in history.

[dramatic music]

The battle in the air over Europe

isn't won by B-17s or P-51s.

It's won by the men who
fight in those planes

and the men and women who
support them on the ground.

What they accomplished,

the destruction of
the German Luftwaffe,

will make possible the greatest
land and sea invasion in history.