Early Strategic Missions

American daylight raids began on August 17, 1942, with the VIII Bomber Command's successful mission against the rail- road marshaling yards at Rouen-Sotteville, France. Twelve B-17s, heavily escorted by RAF Spitfires, accurately bombed the yards and returned without losses. The heavy bombers and their escorts flew eight more successful missions before suffering their first combat loss. Excited by the success of the first nine missions, Spaatz and Eaker optimistically reported to Gen. Henry H. Arnold, the AAF commanding general, that daylight bombing missions were feasible. Shallow penetration raids into France continued while the Eighth Air Force slowly acquired new bomb groups and began building its strength.

By mid-1942, German U-boats operating out of French ports were decimating Allied convoys in the North Atlantic. In October, the Allied commander-in-chief, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, hoping to reduce the number of U-boats at sea and to disrupt their refitting operations, directed the Eighth Air Force to give the destruction of the submarine facilities top priority. These raids were not part of the strategic offensive, but they provided U.S. aircrews with valuable experience in daylight operations. The AAF, however, inflicted little damage on the solidly constructed U-boat pens, and German submarines continued to operate from French ports until the Allied ground forces drove them out in the fall of 1944.

Allied plans to invade North Africa in November 1942 also delayed the American strategic bombing campaign. Known as Operation Torch, this invasion resulted in the postponement of the planned cross-channel attack from Britain and the diversion of U.S. air units to North Africa. Those AAF units left in Britain spent the remainder of 1942 bombing the U-boat pens, German airdromes, and, as a third priority, transportation facilities in the occupied territories. But the day for the bomber offensive was on the horizon.