The Fifteenth Air Force:
A Strategic Punch from the Mediterranean

Planning a series of coordinated, precision bombing attacks against the Luftwaffe, the AAF leadership activated the Fifteenth Air Force in Tunis on November 1, 1943. A month later, its headquarters moved to Bari, Italy, where it remained for the duration of the war.

Teamed with the Eighth Air Force and the RAF's Bomber Command in the combined bomber offensive, the Fifteenth Air Force began flying strategic missions the day after its activation. The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) directed the Fifteenth Air Force to give strategic bombardment of Germany top priority, so it faced the challenge of flying missions throughout central and southern Europe. Its targets ranged from submarine pens in France to marshaling yards in Bulgaria. During its first three months, the Fifteenth Air Force not only fulfilled its strategic role but also directly supported the Italian campaign. 

Also during this period, Allied airmen planned for Operation Argument, a series of coordinated attacks against German fighter assembly plants and the ball-bearing industry. In mid-February 1944, clearing weather allowed Operation Argument, later called Big Week, to begin. The RAF and the Eighth Air Force flew the brunt of the missions from England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, led by Maj. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, bombed industrial sites in Austria and southern Germany. Operation Argument ended when the weather turned bad on February 25 and Allied airmen assessed the situation. They concluded that they had seriously disorganized the enemy's aircraft industry by damaging or destroying almost 70 percent of its factory buildings. Later evidence showed that, although the Germans dispersed their aircraft plants and eventually increased production, for a critical period they were deprived of almost five hundred desperately needed fighters. 

Until the war's end, Twining's airmen flew a variety of missions, not only bombing strategic targets but also supporting operations in the Mediterranean, including the Anzio landing, the invasion of southern France, and assaults on the Gustav and Gothic Lines in Italy. Of all Fifteenth Air Force targets, however, Ploesti stood alone. Following up on earlier raids, the Fifteenth Air Force 's heavy bombers attacked Ploesti's refineries nineteen times in 1944, always braving heavy flak and German and Romanian fighters. These missions cost the United States hundreds of heavy bombers and thousands of crewmen. But by the time Stalin's Red Army overran the complex in August 1944, the airmen had cut enemy fuel production there by 80 percent, seriously damaging the German war machine.

By the end of the war, the Fifteenth Air Force had helped to destroy almost half of Hitler's fuel production capacity, seriously damage his fighter production, and cripple his transportation system. Twining's air men did it all, from high-altitude precision bombing to strafing enemy movement on the ground.