Word: wilhelmshaven
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...made on the spot. Some other shots of the crew and their comrades were made at leisure, but from start to finish the film never puts on the deadening look of reenactment. The hope and fear on the faces of the flyers when they get their orders to bomb Wilhelmshaven are real hope and fear. The hope and anxiety of the ground crew, waiting through a long, pastoral afternoon for the plane's return are just as real. The joy of both groups when, late and limping, the Belle gets back loses none of its life-&-death resonance because...
Next day a fleet of 1,100 heavy bombers attacked the great naval base of Wilhelmshaven by daylight, plastered it with more than 1,600 tons of bombs. The attackers had to struggle through snow, rain and high winds to reach the target. Antiaircraft fire was heavy but Nazi fighter opposition was puny; only four U.S. heavy bombers were lost on the raid...
...sharpshooting, well-escorted Eighth mounted four attacks by 400 or more bombers, aimed at priority targets in Wilhelmshaven, Gelsenkirchen & Münster (twin target), Bremen (twice). Between these city-busters, heavy bombers in lesser force hit seven times at industrial targets in Germany and Norway; U.S. and R.A.F. medium bombers and fighter-bombers pecked away day & night in a precise pattern of attack on factories, airdromes, shipping, the Reich's outer defenses...
...that terrible day only 26 bombers and five fighters were lost. In the heavy Wilhelmshaven raid only five of 550 bombers did not return. Two days later another coordinated series of punches, climaxed by another massive Fortress-Liberator raid on the synthetic oil center of Gelsenkirchen, cost the Allies only ten heavies, two Marauders and five fighters. Again two days later a somewhat smaller raid on Düren, coordinated with diversionary attacks, was accomplished without the loss of a single bomber...
Nevertheless, within their scope the new tactics were a great improvement and a promise for the winter. Five planes of 550 at Wilhelmshaven was a lot better than 60 of some 400 at Schweinfurt...