WWII: Massive Air Force “Big Week” Attack on Nazis Weakened Luftwaffe for D-Day

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

Absorbing multiple hits from enemy Luftwaffe planes, maneuvering to avoid dangerous Nazi ground weapons and attacking German targets with .50-cal guns, hundreds of United States Army Air Force’s (USAAF) B-17 Flying Fortress bombers launched a massive coordinated assault just prior to the D-DAY Invasion.

The perils, sacrifices and victories of these attacks are lodged in the collective psyche of historians, veterans and patriotic Americans as the United States commemorates the 73rd Anniversary of the long-sought-after Victory in Europe Day (VE Day), May 8, 1945.

The February 1944 mission, called Operation Argument, was an aggressive Allied bombing attack on German aircraft assembly facilities and factories just months before the D-Day invasion in June, 1944, Air Force historians told Warrior Maven.

The operation, also called the “Big Week,” seized occasion to hit Nazi targets in Poland, Austria and Germany.

“By the time Big Week ended on the 25th, approximately 3,800 sorties by B–17 Flying Fortresses and B–24 Liberators had dropped almost 10,000 tons of munitions, roughly the tonnage dropped by Eighth Air Force during the previous year,” U.S. Air Force Historical Support Division Dr. Robert Oliver told Warrior Maven in an interview.

Given this scenario, Oliver explained that the “Big Week” amounted to somewhat of an early, unofficial start to the air portions of the Normandy invasion. By the time of the Normandy invasion, the USAAF and British Royal Air Force (RAF) had already established air superiority, he writes.

“The raids (from the “Big Week”) caused German industry to disperse, introducing inefficiency and rendering the assembly chain vulnerable to disruptions in transportation,” Oliver explained.