Operation Bodenplatte - Background

Background

The armies of the Western Allies were supported by the Allied Air Forces as they advanced across Western Europe in 1944. The Royal Air Force (RAF) and its Second Tactical Air Force—under the command of Air Marshal Arthur Coningham—moved No. 2 Group RAF, No. 83 Group RAF, No. 84 Group RAF and No. 85 Group RAF to continental Europe in order to provide constant close air support. The RAF harassed the German air, sea and ground forces by hitting strong points and interdicting their supply lines while reconnaissance units apprised the Allies of German movements. With Allied air superiority, the German Army could not operate effectively. The Luftwaffe, however, found it difficult to provide effective air cover for the German Army. It was mostly short of pilots and fuel, but it also lacked experienced combat leaders in the air by this stage in the war and was heavily outnumbered.

The land battles moved towards the River Rhine, to the east of which lay the German homeland. Most of France had been liberated, as had the Belgian cities Brussels and Antwerp. Although Operation Market Garden had failed in 1944, by 1945 the Allies had overrun most of the southern Netherlands and the Scheldt Estuary. As the ground forces moved across Europe, the Allied tactical air forces moved into new bases on the continent, to continue providing close support. The only limiting factor for the Allies was the weather. As winter came, the rains and mud turned airfields into quagmires, so large-scale air and land operations came to a halt.

The situation might well have continued until the spring thaw had the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) not launched Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine, or "Rhine Watch") on 16 December 1944. The land offensive was to restore the German military position by capturing Antwerp and separating the British Army from the United States Army forces. Part of the German land operation planning required the attack to be conducted under the cover of bad winter weather, which kept the main Allied asset, the Tactical Air Forces, on the ground. The weather also grounded the Luftwaffe for the most part, but on the first day, the Luftwaffe did manage to put 500 aircraft into the air, more than had been achieved for a long time. This first day had been the originally planned date for the strike against Allied airfields, named Operation Bodenplatte. However, the weather proved particularly bad and operations were shut down.

The offensive achieved surprise and much initial success. To counter the attack from the air, the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) handed operational control of its XXIX Tactical Air Command and part of its Ninth Air Force, under the command of Major General Hoyt Vandenberg, to the RAF and Arthur Coningham. On 23 December, the RAF Second Tactical Air Force provided the American forces with much needed support, and helped prevent a German capture of Malmedy and Bastogne. This left the Germans with only the logistical bottleneck of St. Vith to support their operations. The German attack faltered.

The Luftwaffe had been far from absent over the front in December. It flew several thousand sorties over the theatre. Its encounters with the RAF and USAAF had meant heavy losses in matériel and pilots. On the eight days of operations, between 17 and 27 December 1944, 644 fighters were lost and 227 damaged. This resulted in 322 pilots killed, 23 captured and 133 wounded. On the three days of operations, 23-25 December, 363 fighters were destroyed. None of the Geschwaderkommodore (Wing Commanders) expected any large-scale air operations by the end of the month.