Battle for the Skies

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Battle for the Skies"

Podcast: World War II with Tom Hanks
Host: The HISTORY Channel | Back Pocket Studios | Audacy
Episode Date: June 30, 2026
Episode: 12 – Battle for the Skies

---

Overview

In “Battle for the Skies,” Tom Hanks and a squad of historians, analysts, and voice actors examine the pivotal and brutal aerial campaigns between the Allies and Nazi Germany during World War II. The episode uncovers the evolution, triumphs, and tragedies of strategic bombing, exploring how the air war shaped the conflict’s trajectory and determined the fate of the D-Day invasion. It’s a vivid, human-centric portrait of extraordinary innovation, inter-Allied tension, catastrophic losses, and the relentless struggle to control the skies over Europe.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Strategic Context: The Skies as the Battlefield (00:36–04:33)

• American Arrival & Transformation of East Anglia

  • Hundreds of thousands of Americans arrive in England, turning quiet East Anglia into an "aircraft carrier" to wage the air assault on Germany.
  • Tom Hanks (00:36): "Combat at 25,000ft and 300 miles per hour has never been attempted before."
  • The Allies recognize that victory will depend heavily on air supremacy.

• Development of Strategic Bombing Doctrine

  • "Bomber barons" in the US Air Corps advocate for attacking the enemy’s homeland and industry, not just its armies.
  • Expert (02:35): “The new way is strategic bombing.”

2. Evolving Tactics & Allied Tensions (04:33–08:25)

• RAF Bombing Tactics

  • Britain, after suffering heavy losses from daylight bombing, switches to night area bombing—accepting civilian casualties as a necessary evil and form of retribution for the Blitz.
  • Crew Member (05:59): "They sailed the wind and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."

• Clash with US Daylight Precision Bombing

  • At the Casablanca Conference, Churchill and Roosevelt debate strategies; Americans insist on daylight raids using their advanced Norden bombsight.
  • Expert (06:49): "As so often in World War II, American expectations come up against British experience."

3. Perils and Realities of Bomber Crews (08:37–11:45)

• The Brutality of High-Altitude Bombing
  • Extreme cold, lack of oxygen, and unrelenting flak (notably the feared 88mm gun) make every mission a gamble with death.
  • German fighters and flak claim many bombers; defensive machine guns and tight crew interdependence are vital.
  • Historian (11:27): "War sometimes breaks down to individual moments of terror."

4. Strategic Bombing’s Mixed Results (12:07–16:32)

• High Losses and Questionable Effectiveness

  • Precision bombing is far less precise than promised; catastrophic mission casualty rates (10–20%) dampen morale.
  • Hitler underestimates air power, keeping focus on the Eastern front while German industry, using forced labor, rapidly recovers from bombings.

• Cross-Channel Invasion Planning

  • Air supremacy is recognized as impossible to bypass for a successful D-Day (Operation Overlord).
  • Strategist (15:10): "Amphibious operations can't happen unless you control the seas and have control of the air."

5. Operation Gomorrah: Hamburg’s Firestorm (16:32–24:33)

• Unprecedented Destruction

  • Joint Anglo-American raids on Hamburg result in a devastating firestorm with 1,000°C temperatures and hurricane-force winds.
  • Field Reporter (21:12): “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.”
  • Over 40,000 civilians are killed, two-thirds of the city’s housing destroyed.
  • Churchill’s Regret (22:26): “Are we beasts?”

• Aftermath

  • Hamburg shocks German command; Hitler redirects resources to homeland defense.
  • Both sides debate the morality and effectiveness of area vs. precision bombing.

6. Escalation & Stalemate (25:11–32:56)

• Allied Maximum Effort and Bottlenecks

  • US Air Force doubles/triples mission sizes, targeting “bottleneck industries" like ball bearings.
  • Germans disperse and move industry underground, blunting the raids’ effectiveness.

• Unbearable Losses & "Black October"

  • Successive raids fail to cripple German production.
  • Expert (30:49): “If you’re an American airman, you have a 20% chance of being killed on any mission you undertake. One in five.”

• British Berlin Raids

  • Massive RAF winter campaign over Berlin has epic costs with modest results.
  • Historian (32:56): “The Berlin bombing campaign is an epic effort but unfortunately an epic failure.”

7. Technological Turning Point: The P-51 Mustang (34:21–36:23)

• A Game Changer

  • Introduction of the P-51 Mustang, merging American airframes and British Merlin engines, solves the long-range escort problem.
  • Military Expert (35:00): "It's fast, it flies high, it's so efficient that it can escort a bomber all the way to downtown Berlin and back."

• Combined Arms & Coalition

  • The P-51 embodies the successful Anglo-American partnership, allowing U.S. bombers greater protection deep into Germany.

8. Operation Argument (Big Week) and the Turning of the Tide (37:40–41:08)

• Air Supremacy Achieved

  • “Operation Argument” (Big Week): massive air battle designed to lure out and decimate the Luftwaffe.
  • Commander (37:59): "This is the critical hour for the combined bomber offensive."
  • US loses about a quarter of 8th Air Force; Germans lose a third of their fighters and 18% of pilots—losses Germany cannot sustain.

• Tactical Synergy

  • Mustangs and bombers, working in concert, break Luftwaffe resistance.
  • Strategist (40:26): "It's really this symbiosis. Mustangs, they're killing German fighters, which means the bombers can now be more accurate..."

• D-Day's Prerequisite Fulfilled

  • By June 1944, Luftwaffe is shattered; Allies “own the air,” making the Normandy invasion possible.

9. The Human Cost and Legacy (41:08–42:37)

• Heavy Price Paid

  • Fewer than a quarter of bomber crews survive.
  • Air war proved both a technological experiment and a costly, trial-by-fire ordeal for those involved.
  • Expert (41:30): “The tragedy of the air war is that the bomber crews were essentially testing out an unproven theory.”

• Airpower’s Real Victory

  • Success comes not just from machines but from the courage and sacrifice of the crews and the support teams behind them.
  • Tom Hanks (42:09): “The battle in the air over Europe isn't won by B17s or P51s. It's won by the men who fight in those planes and the men and women who support them on the ground.”

---

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• "He forgot to put a roof over it. And the Allied bombers are going to take advantage of that." — Historian/Expert Commentator, on Hitler’s Fortress Europe. (01:53)
• “The new way is strategic bombing.” — Expert Commentator on evolution of airpower doctrine. (02:35)
• “They sailed the wind and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.” — Bomber Crew Member, echoing feelings of retribution in air strategy. (05:59)
• “Are we beasts?” — Churchill, after seeing Hamburg’s devastation. (22:26)
• “If you’re an American airman, you have a 20% chance of being killed on any mission you undertake. One in five.” — Historian/Expert Commentator, on lethal air crew odds. (30:49)
• “It's fast, it flies high, it's so efficient that it can escort a bomber all the way to downtown Berlin and back. It's the equivalent or better than anything the Germans have.” — Military Expert/Strategist, on the P-51 Mustang. (35:00)
• “The tragedy of the air war is that the bomber crews were essentially testing out an unproven theory.” — Historian/Expert Commentator (41:30)
• “The battle in the air over Europe isn't won by B17s or P51s. It's won by the men who fight in those planes and the men and women who support them on the ground.” — Tom Hanks (42:09)

---

Important Timestamps

• 00:36 – Introduction of air supremacy as a war-determining factor.
• 02:08 – Emergence of strategic bombing theory.
• 04:33 – Shift from daylight to night bombing for RAF.
• 06:36 – Casablanca Conference and US insistence on daylight raids.
• 08:37 – Description of bomber mission perils.
• 16:32 – Operation Gomorrah/Hamburg firestorm.
• 25:11 – US strategy shifts to maximum effort, bottleneck targets.
• 29:26 – Human and psychological toll on bomber crews.
• 34:21 – Introduction and significance of the P-51 Mustang.
• 37:40 – Operation Argument (Big Week) begins.
• 40:11 – Turning point: Luftwaffe’s destruction.
• 41:08–42:09 – Conclusion and reflection on the legacy and cost of the air war.

---

Flow and Tone

Narrated with Tom Hanks’ characteristic warmth, gravity, and human focus, “Battle for the Skies” blends technical analysis, strategic overview, and powerful personal testimony. The episode is somber, vivid, and deeply empathetic—unflinching in depicting the agony, experimentation, and ultimate triumph achieved through courage, sacrifice, and innovation.

---

For listeners and non-listeners alike, this episode shatters myths about precision and ease in the air war, revealing it as a desperate gamble and a necessary, if tragic, road to Allied victory in World War II.

Transcript

[Alltrails/Paragould Advertiser]

There's never been a better time to get outside and experience the benefits of nature. Discover nearby trails and explore the outdoors with alltrails. Download the free app today and find your outside. From furniture to tableware, the best for outdoor living is at Paragould, the destination for luxury home. Elevate how you go alfresco with quality pieces in every style from design's best brands. Shop in store and [e-mail] the History Channel original Podcast.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

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 Nazi Germany from the air. Combat at 25,000ft and 300 miles per hour has never been attempted before. The physical, mental and emotional challenges will be unique. Victory in World War II will be largely determined by who controls the skies, the German Luftwaffe or the Allied Air forces.

[Tom Hanks]

This is world war ii with tom hanks. Episode 12 battle for the skies.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

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.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

Hitler has turned Europe into an apparent, 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

In the First World War, 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 U.S. air Corps Tactical School. They come to be known as the bomber barons.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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 war. These air power advocates say this is a better way to fight war. No need for that horrible trench deadlock. The World War I. That's the old way. The new way is strategic bombing.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

East Anglia is the England of little churches, hedges, fields, medieval buildings. And it's turned into one gigantic aircraft carrier.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

In the spring of 1942, the US 8th 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 War.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

It's flat. It's perfect for airfields. So you get this massive, massive influx of American bombers carrying the most destructive weapons ever produced. And just as strikingly young American airmen.

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

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.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

The English used to complain, they're over sexed, they're overpaid, and they're over here.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

The Royal Air Force has been striking the German homeland for two years. Take off often go. Off you go, ever. Prime Minister Winston Churchill understands how important such raids are for British morale. But the RAF pays a grievous cost.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

In these early months of the war, there were raids with hardly any aircraft coming back.

[Military Analyst/Expert]

And the most important lesson they took away from it is that daytime bombing was very hazardous thing to undertake.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

Arthur Harris is the man put in charge of Britain's Bomber Command, and it's his idea to switch to night bombing, to use night as a cloak to protect these bomber forces so they can drop their bombs and they have a better chance of making it home.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

So what they're doing is merely area bombing. They're flying over German cities at night and letting loose their bomb loads, and that means civilian casualties.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

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 planned to smash German society so badly that it knocks them out of the war.

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

They sailed the wind and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Meeting in Casablanca. President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and their staffs strategize how to continue the Allied assault on the Third Reich.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

One of the major outcomes of the Casablanca conference is the Allies declared unconditional surrender as their war aim. But something else happens at Casablanca as well. An argument on air strategy between the British and Americans.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

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.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

And as so often In World War II, American expectations come up against British experience.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

Churchill is going to go to FDR and tell him that, look, your daylight precision stuff, it's not going to 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.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

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 bomb at night just like we do, and he says, no, no air Power could be used in a better way.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

The American plan rests on a cutting edge device, the Norden bombsight.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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 bomb. According to the advertising slogans, it can drop a bomb in a pickle barrel at 18,000ft.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Americans claim the Norden bomb site, which requires daylight and clear weather, promises greater precision and therefore fewer civilian casualties.

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

So Henry Arnold and his advisors come up with this plan, the combined bomber offensive, which means the British bombing at night and the Americans bombing precision targets during the day.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

The Americans are going to 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Attacking an enemy from 25,000ft presents unique challenges. Temperatures dip below minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. If an airman's supply of oxygen is cut off for more than 60 seconds, he will die.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

You look out the window as a Crewman on a B17 and you begin to see black puffs. And they might not look too dangerous until one actually makes contact.

[Military Analyst/Expert]

The most infamous German weapon of them all was the flak 88 millimeter gun. It's capable of sending 29 pound explosive projectiles to altitudes approaching 30,000ft.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

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.

[Military Officer/Commander]

Once the flak stops, there's silence. It's a deathly silence because they know what's coming.

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

There's four of them, one o' clock high. They're coming around.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

German fighter pilots are seasoned combat veterans. Many of them have hundreds of kills because they've been engaged in this war since 1939.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

The best way to kill a German fighter is to send Allied fighters to shoot them down. But when the United States starts to bomb Germany proper, their fighters don't have the range to be able to escort bombers all the way to a target.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

So the B17 is bristling with machine guns around the fuselage of the aircraft.

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

Three planes, nine o' clock, coming around. Su patter. Six o' clock up, coming in.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

There really is a flying fortress.

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

Bomber crews were these interdependent societies in which every person was dependent upon the person sitting next to them and the person sitting behind them.

Breaking 11. Breaking 11. I got him. B17 out of control at 3 o'. Clock. Come on, you guys, get out of that plane. Bail out. Come on get out of there.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

A few miles from the actual target, the bomber will start what's called the bomb run. And it's all done visually. You have to hold altitude, hold airspeed, and hold headings so the bombardier can dial in on the Norden bomb site. Because if you don't hit that target, you gotta come back again.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

War sometimes breaks down to individual moments of terror. You're watching other planes being literally blown out of the sky, and you have to drop the bombs with precision

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

and

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

then make it out again on the way home.

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

Bombs away.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

In combat conditions, the accuracy of the Norton bomb site is not as precise as the Air Force predicted. The casualties are greater than they feared.

[Historian/Commentator]

These missions would come back with 10, 20% losses. Of course, the pilots are highly trained, highly technical people that are very difficult to replace.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

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 war, these men are guinea pigs.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Mission by mission, the 8th 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.

[Military Analyst/Expert]

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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

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 Goering.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

Goering is hearing from his local and regional Luftwaffe commanders that they really need more fighter aircraft. But in a sense, Goering's trapped. If he detaches air power from the Eastern front, a situation that is already critical, is soon going to turn more mortal.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

The Germans now are going to streamline procedures and make things more efficient. They start producing more aircraft, more armaments in the middle of the combined bomber offensive. So from 1943 on, there's an exponential increase in and German industrial output.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

With German fighter production on the upswing, the Allied government's 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

In May, Churchill and Roosevelt meet to finalize plans in the Mediterranean. They also commit to a cross channel invasion of France.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

Since America came into the war, they've had a strategy to land a gigantic force somewhere in northwestern France and then driving Straight into the heart of Germany.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Codenamed 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.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

At this point, everybody recognizes amphibious operations can't happen unless you control the seas and have control of the air.

[Military Officer/Commander]

So the top commanders all agree that the number one priority is destroying the Luftwaffe.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

And that means the bomber 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

The RAF and the 8th Air Force join efforts for what they term blitzweek attacks on various cities across Germany. Their first joint target is a busy port with dockyards, submarine pens and manufacturing. It's also home to over a million people.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

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 going to de house German people and that means workers are going to be killed. Factories will grind to a halt, supply chains will break down.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

It's codenamed Operation Gomorrah, after the Old Testament city that was destroyed by fire from above.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

This is going to be eight days and seven nights of pounding the city of Hamburg.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

It's very carefully planned. First there are high explosives to blow out windows, to blow out roofs, to

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

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.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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 bomber offensive to wipe a city off the map.

[Alma Advertiser]

A year from today, what would your dream private practice look like? Would you spend less time chasing claims or only working with clients who value your skill set? What if you had a network to reach out to for questions or free continuing education? What if you had more time for yourself? ALMA empowers you to confidently accept insurance backed by an all in one EHR that simplifies scheduling, documentation and day to day practice operations. With a network of engaged providers and free CE resources, Alma makes it easy for you to build the practice of your dreams on your terms. Alma believes that when therapists get the support they need. Mental health care gets better for everyone. Learn more about [e-mail] getstarted. Your dream practice is closer than you think. Get started [e-mail] get started.

[Greg Jackson (History Podcast Host)]

History that Doesn't Suck is a legit, hard hitting American history podcast told through entertaining stories. As we approach America's 250th anniversary, now might be the time to go back and learn how we got here. With more than 200 episodes, you can binge your way decade by decade, defining event to defining event from the founding into the 20th century. Join me Professor Greg Jackson for History that Doesn't Suck. An Odyssey Podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Wix Advertiser]

Here's a riddle for what costs less than my coffee and actually makes me money and makes my mom proud? A domain from Wix Mine cost me less than 2 bucks and only took a minute to register and I even built a whole website in minutes using WIX Harmony. After two years of dragging my feet, I'm finally in business. Don't wait like I did. Get your [e-mail] domains that's wix.com domains.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

In the summer of 1943, Allied Air Forces launch Blitzweek, the largest series of raids on Germany to date.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

The Allies first joint target is the city of Hamburg. On the night of July 24, the raids begin. The RAF drops incendiary bombs, but in the following days American B17s are unable to hit their targets.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

The Americans intended to bomb aircraft factories, but the use of incendiaries created so much smoke that the Norden bomb sites were essentially blinded.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

They can't actually see their targets, so they're almost reduced to doing area bombing. Not unlike the British.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

On July 27, a heat wave sends temperatures soaring as the RAF returns for a fourth night of strikes.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

It's very hot, it's very dry and the meteorological conditions are ripe for firestorm. This time the fires burned so hot, the oxygen that these fires demand causes the windstorm.

[Military Officer/Commander]

Winds are over 150 miles an hour.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

The firestorm is 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.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

A gigantic updraft results that robs people cowering in their shelters of oxygen and leads to death by asphyxiation.

[Military Officer/Commander]

Temperatures go up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. It's the most devastating firestorm that's ever been created.

[Historian/Commentator]

The 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.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

The city of Hamburg is devastated.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Operation Gamora kills over 40,000 civilians. Almost two thirds of the city's houses are burned to the ground, leaving a million residents homeless.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

Churchill is worried about the human cost of what they're doing. He's worried about how history will look at it.

[Historian/Commentator]

There's a line from Churchill supposedly where he looks at some of the movies of Hamburg and goes, are we beasts?

[Military Historian/Analyst]

The striking thing about air power is it makes all of us combatants.

[Greg Jackson (History Podcast Host)]

It's not just about the battlefield.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

The battlefield is actually civilian population.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

The destruction stuns Nazi high command. One of Hitler's ministers tells him that Hamburg put the fear of God. But Hitler refuses to visit the city or receive a delegation of civilians who had saved lives during the fire.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

Hamburg is a shock to the entire German war effort. Goering has told Hitler repeatedly that he had this bomber problem under control. And now here lies the second largest city in Germany in ashes.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Accounts of the bombing of Hamburg spread through throughout Germany. Hitler begins to transfer German fighter planes from the Eastern front and the Mediterranean to the fatherland.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

In addition, the Germans ring their major cities with these gigantic monumental flak towers. 150ft tall, 11 foot thick concrete walls bristling with guns. Not only are they highly effective against incoming bombers, their guns barking, the sound and fury remind the people that Hitler is looking out for them.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

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 war winning strategy that if you hit people hard enough, you can cause a breakdown of their will to fight.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

Henry Arnold thinks strategic bombing can work. We just need to do it harder.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

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 8th Air Force is receiving enough planes and personnel to launch the large formations required to decimate German aircraft production. Bomber baron flight theory is about to be put into practice.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

What is keeping the LUF off 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Arnold now demands maximum effort from the 8th Air Force.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

Normally, airplanes 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Previously, around 90 B17s would fly each mission, but that number will soon double and triple.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

The Americans are obsessed with this view of the German economy as a series of interconnected pubs and spokes. So if they hit the right domino,

[Carvana Advertiser]

they'll all come down.

[Military Officer/Commander]

These are called bottleneck industries, industries where just a few plants and locations control all the production.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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 war economy crippled.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

Probably the most consequential bottleneck industry with regards to the Luftwaffe. There's ball bearings. 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

On August 17, one year to the day from their first attack on occupied Europe, the 8th 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 8th loses nearly 100 planes and 1,000 and crew killed or captured. Ball bearing production is interrupted, but only temporarily.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

The Allies are always surprised at how rapidly the Germans rebuild their cities and factories. But they do so with this almost inexhaustible supply of slave labor. Prisoners of war in the hundreds of thousands, they're barely fed. When one dies, they can be simply discarded and another one put in their place.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Forced laborers from occupied countries are ordered by the Nazis to reconstruct German factories.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

They also dispersed the German aircraft industry so that it can't be taken out in any one strike, because it's not all in one place. And they put it underground. They use old salt mines, they use old quarries.

[Military Analyst/Expert]

Now you can't hit it. Now you can't bomb it. There is nothing you can do because you can't bomb a facility when it's underground.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

This ultimately means German aircraft production will continue to increase.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

By the fall of 1943, the 8th Air Force is bombing targets deep inside the Reich and returning to ones they've already hit. In early October, they fly a series of maximum effort raids, including a second strike on the planted Schweinfurt, all in a single week.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

There is a limit to how much the human psyche can take, and on many occasions, bomber crews reach that limit. You're five miles up and you're braving death every second. Fighters flak. Fighters flak. An adrenaline rush overloading your nervous system. 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 do it again tomorrow. More fighters, more flack. You think you were gonna die 10 times in the course of this bomb raid, and that night you'd be drinking scotch with a couple of friends at the commissary. It was almost impossible to reconcile.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

The longer you did it, you would become more and more aware of how vulnerable you were.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

By the end of the month. The 8th Air Force has endured horrifically losses. The men call it Black October.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

If you're an American airman, you have a 20% chance of being killed on any mission you undertake. One in five. That is forbidding, Matt. Adding to that, they don't appear to be having an appreciable impact on the German war effort, leading to an incipient collapse of airman morale.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

They start to see the losses around them and go, we're just gonna fly until we're dead.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

The series of American raids in Black October shows the cost of daytime precision bombing.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

The lost raids, the limitations of the Norden bomb site, the weather, all these things play in a factor in how ineffective the bombing campaign is. In 1943, you could easily say that the Luftwaffe still owned the skies over Germany.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

In the late fall, bad Weather forces the 8th Air Force to suspend missions, giving ground crews the winter to patch battered planes. But the RAF launches its largest campaign yet, a sustained assault on Berlin.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

These are going to be massive raids, 16 of them in the heart of Germany.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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 four to five hundred bombers, but they'll cost Germany the war.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

The RAF winter raids to Berlin push the limit and stamina of British air crews with modest results.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

Praires is presciently accurate. They lose 400 to 500 aircraft and almost 5,000 airmen.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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 planes shot down and more of their crewmen killed or captured.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

After months of heavy losses, the 8th Air Force is at a crossroads.

[Military Officer/Commander]

Arnold realizes the bombers can't do it alone. If he wants these bombers to make a difference in this war, he's got to send fighters to the target with them.

[Military Analyst/Expert]

The Allied air forces have the P38 Lightning and the P47 Thunderbolt. Two absolutely excellent fighter aircraft, capable of dogfighting just about as well as anything else in the sky. They only had one limitation, and that was range.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

But a new fighter is already being produced by the United States for the British, the P51 Mustang.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

And the Brits test fly it and they go, thanks, it's okay. Below 15,000ft it's fine, but we're looking for something higher altitude. 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 mated together and it's gangbusters.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

That's when it turns into this magical machine machine. It's fast, it flies high, it's so efficient that it can escort a bomber all the way to downtown Berlin and back. It's the equivalent or better than anything the Germans have.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

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 war 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 War II.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

The P51 is a game changer, but it requires, mind you, an entire rethink

[Carvana Advertiser]

of American aerial doctrine.

[Narrator/Field Reporter]

Allied planners realized that if they threaten targets that are essential to the German war effort, and they force the Germans to send up fighters to protect those targets, the P51s can pounce and shoot them down.

[Military Officer/Commander]

The Allies have started out thinking B17s will destroy the German air force on the ground. By early 1944, they realize the P51 is going to destroy the German air force

[Military Historian/Analyst]

in the air.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

Best thing that's ever happened to you.

[Military Analyst/Expert]

Financially.

[Wix Advertiser]

Go easy.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Sold my car on Carvana. Amazing offer, really.

[Military Analyst/Expert]

I hit 200 on a scratcher.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check?

[Bomber Crew Member/Voice Actor]

No.

[Carvana Advertiser]

How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Okay, that's fair.

[Carvana Advertiser]

It's like the lottery, except you always win.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Not like the lottery at all, actually.

[Carvana Advertiser]

Exactly. Inexplicably good offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up. These may apply.

[Exxon Mobil Advertiser]

How can you strengthen your construction business with Proxima systems from Exxon Mobil. Our advanced resin systems and Advanced Enable lighter and stronger alternatives to traditional steel rebar, helping reduce labor and transportation costs while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. We're helping build a more efficient construction industry with sustainability in mind. ExxonMobil. Let's deliver.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

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.

[Military Officer/Commander]

This is the critical hour for the combined bomber offensive. Because the Allies now know that they're approaching the time for the D Day landings. They need to draw up the Luftwaffe so that the P51 can destroy it in the skies. 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Fitted with extra fuel tanks, the P51 Mustangs are capable of penetrating deep into Germany. Their primary mission has been protecting the bombers. Now they're ordered to actively pursue German fighters, even if it leaves the formations vulnerable.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

The mission of the Americans fight is to be aggressive and go after the Luftwaffe in the air to kill them in any way, shape or form.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Operation Argument, known as Big Week begins a battle of attrition between the Allied air forces and the Luftwaffe. The success of the upcoming invasion hangs in the balance.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

The United States is going to lose about a quarter of the 8th Air Force in that fight. The Germans are going to lose about a third of their fighter force and 18% of their fighter pilots. This is something the Allies can sustain, the Germans cannot.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

From the US perspective, this is a war 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.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

In the month after Big Week, American fighters down more German planes over Europe than in the previous two years. The Luftwaffe is being destroyed in the air and on the ground.

[Military Expert/Strategist]

It's really this symbiosis. Mustangs, they're killing 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. It's a cycle that's destroying the Luftwaffe.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

By June 1944, there are few experienced Luftwaffe pilots left alive.

[Military Historian/Analyst]

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 6, 1944.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

Control of the air is decisively established. The Luftwaffe will be incapable of opposing the upcoming Allied invasion. But again, the cost is high. Fewer than a quarter of British and American bomber crews survive the campaign.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

The tragedy of the air war is that the bomber crews were essentially testing out an unproven theory.

[Historian/Commentator]

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 war is by dying sometimes in wartime. There's no other way to learn.

[Historian/Expert Commentator]

When both the British and American Air Force forces work together, bombers and fighters together, they proved to be the most effective aerial instrument of war in history.

[Narrator (Tom Hanks)]

The battle in the air over Europe isn't won by B17s or P51s. It's won by the men who fight in those planes and the men and women who support them on the ground. What they accomplish, the destruction of the German Luftwaffe will make possible the greatest land and sea invasion in history.

[Tom Hanks]

World War 2 with Tom Hanks is produced by AE Factual Studios, Newtopia Ltd. Playtone Productions and Back Pocket Studios in association with Motion Entertainment for the History Channel. This episode was narrated by Tom Hanks and mixed by John Lloyd. Additional voicing provided by me, Jeremy Reagan from the History Channel. Our executive producers are Eli Lehrer and Liv Fiddler for Playtone. Executive producers are Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman for Back Pocket Studios. Our executive producer is Ben Dickstein.

[Alltrails/Paragould Advertiser]

From furniture to tableware, the best for outdoor living is at Paragould, the destination for luxury home. Elevate how you go al fresco with quality pieces in every style from design's best brands. Shop our largest ever selection and enjoy free fast full service delivery on most items in store and [e-mail].