Air battle over the Ore Mountains



The air battle over the Ore Mountains (Luftschlacht über dem Erzgebirge) took place around midday on 11 September 1944 between German and American air forces over the crest of the Ore Mountains near the village of Oberwiesenthal above the Bohemian market town of Schmiedeberg (today Kovářská in the Czech republic).

Course of the battle
The 100th Bomber Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force, stationed at RAF Thorpe Abbotts in England, approached the area in a formation of 36 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers. The bombers flew at great height over Germany and initially without being escorted by fighters. Their target was the Schwarzheide Synthesis Factory (Synthesewerk Schwarzheide) between Dresden and Cottbus; in addition, several planes were to drop their bomb loads over the Sudetenland fuel factory of Maltheuern near Brüx. The synthesis factory was frequently a target of Allied bombing because it manufactured fuel from coal, something that was important to the war effort.

A concentrated attack was mounted against the bomber force over Schmiedeberg by the German fighter unit, Jagdgeschwader 4, stationed at the airfields of Alteno near Luckau and Welzow near Cottbus. The attackers comprised 60 Focke-Wulf Fw 190A and Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes. This first attack by the German fighters had devastating consequences for the bomber formation: a total of 14 U.S. bombers were shot down, some crashing immediately. The plan had been for the bombers to rendezvous with U.S. North American P-51 Mustang fighters over the crest of the Ore Mountains anyway and this took place immediately after the first attack by German fighters. The U.S. Mustangs had taken off from RAF Horham. After the rendezvous, dogfighting broke out between the fighters, allowing the remaining bombers to escape.

Although the German fighters should have been an even match for the Mustangs, in this particular dogfight they were heavily defeated, because the aircraft were mainly flown by young, inexperienced German pilots, many of whom were on their first operational sortie. The new Messerschmitt Me 262 fighters did not participate in the battle, despite being potentially available in large numbers, because Hitler had ordered them to be converted to fighter-bombers. The remaining U.S. bombers were able to drop 53 t of bombs on the Schwarzheide Synthesis Factory. The crash sites of the downed bombers were mainly around Schmiedeberg, near Oberwiesenthal, Crottendorf and Rittersgrün.

Losses

 * 19 U.S. aircraft lost
 * 32 German fighter planes lost
 * ~50 Americans killed
 * 29 German pilots killed
 * Captured Americans - 89 airmen