October 21, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, long before D-Day, another battle was already being fought high above Europe. The late, great Stephen Ambrose brings us into that world, where bomber crews crossed the Channel in formation and hoped to see England again by nightfall. Through his eyes, we see the exhaustion of the men who flew, the calculations of the commanders who sent them, and the gradual rise of an air strategy that helped turn the tide of the war.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Stephen Ambrose was one of America's leading biographers and historians.
Ambrose passed in two thousand and two, but his epic
storytelling accounts can now be heard here at Our American Stories,
(00:31):
thanks to those who run as estate. Our next story
is about the fundamental importance of air superiority in World
War Two. Here's Stephen Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The bombers in the Second World War were very much
bigger than anything that the First World War has seen,
going up to the really big ones like the B seventeen,
the B seventeen, the most famous of all, a foreig
engine bomber called the Flying Fortress. They all had in
common in these things. They carried a lot of armament
(01:02):
so that they could self defend. That is, there'd be
a gunner in the nose, a gunner and the tail,
a gunner in the belly, a gunner in the turret above.
These men were all there for defensive purposes, to drive
off enemy fighters, and at the expense of speed and maneuverability,
because they were all very heavy. People in the Air
ministry in Britain worked it out that statistically, your cancers
(01:25):
in a bomber were going to be very much higher
over Berlin or Bremen or Hamburg or wherever the target was.
Your chances are going to be a lot higher if
you got rid of all those gunners, got rid of
all of their guns, lightened your plane up so it
could fly higher and faster. And they said, so our
advice to you is to get them out of there
and to Amand the air crews, including the pilots and
the bombardier and the navigator, said, no way, we want
(01:49):
to be shooting back. The experts would say, but your
cancers and survival are going to be so much better
if you're up higher, flying faster. We want to be
shooting back, is the reply always. The American B seventeen
was called the Flying Fortress. The idea when it was
designed and in its initial deployments was that they had
(02:10):
a lot more range than a fighter aircraft and they
could set out from England was the idea over targets
inside Germany and could beat off any German attack from
fighter aircraft coming up to meet him. They found out
pretty early on that that really wasn't so even if
the B seventeens did everything right according to three kept
their formations, nevertheless, those German fighters were going to get
(02:30):
through very heavy losses. The British response to this was
night attacks. Now, of course the price you pay for
a bombing rate at night because you can't see the target.
So they went to well, well, bomb cities. You can
hardly miss a city as big as Berlin. Right. The
Americans didn't accept that proposition that, first of all, we've
(02:52):
got to give up daylight raids. It was to them
a confession of failure in the air war, and certainly
in the more open way, that the Bredier method wasn't
going to end the war or speed up the end
of the war in any way at all. I mean,
just bombing city, you're going to be any good? The
Birders replied that we keep the workers awake at night.
You know, there's a bombing rate in mid night. They
(03:13):
got to hear the sirens. They're up at eleven, they
got to get into the subways. They don't get out
until they're all clear at three am. They got to
go to work at six am, and so they're not
going to be very efficient at work. Well, well, I'll
tell you they was putting a lot of effort in
the seeing to it that a few German workers lost
some sleep at night. But the American use of the
weapon also has to be criticized. The Americans thought, there
(03:33):
there has got to be a key somewhere. There's got
to be a target somewhere. If you find that target,
you knock it out. Germany can't make war anymore. One point,
they had a terrific idea ball bearings. Everything in the
world moves on ball bearings. No wheel can turn without
ball bearings. There's not a car in Germany. There's not
a tank, there's not a truck. There's nothing in Germany
you can move without ball bearings. They only make ball
bearings in one place at Regan'sburg. Will knock that out,
(03:54):
and Germany will screech to a halt, and then it
will have to surrender. So they went after the ball
bearing plan. Nothing happened that they'd forgotten some basic principles
of economics. For one thing, there were ball bearings already
in storage at the various plants that were making the
trucks and tanks and airplanes for Germany. For another, there
were ball bearings in transit, and for a third, ball
(04:14):
bearings aren't all that hard to make. For a fourth,
as very often happened in all of these factory busting raids,
it looked very impressive from the air, a lot of smoke,
a lot of fire, so they were out of business.
Right of the machine tools hadn't been damaged at all.
You'd blown off some roofs, but the machine tools had
all survived. Now it would be wrong to dismiss operation
point blank, the strategic bombing of Germany that quickly to
(04:38):
force the Germans back into much smaller factories, and many
of them underground, almost to a cottage industry kind of
a situation. But it continued. In fact, Germany reached the
peak of her production in the Second World War in
the fall of nineteen forty four. One point the idea was,
will knock out hydroelectric plants. They're not so easy to
knock out. It turned out then it was going to
(04:59):
be oil refies, and that was the most productive target.
If they'd come to that earlier and stayed added harder,
they might well have brought Germany to a halt. As
far as the GI is, the infantry stationed in England
during the build up. We're concerned. These airmen had the softest,
cushiest life imaginable. They were in barracks, they had warm beds,
(05:19):
they had hot foods, they got passes to London all
the time. They just sat around and played cards and
went in and got drunken night and it was just
a marvelous life. To the men leading the life, it
was the worst possible life. They had nothing to do
in England, so they just were killing time. They were
there for the purpose of carrying out raids over Germany,
and when the weather was appropriate and they carried out
(05:40):
these raids, it meant hours of boredom, just droning on
in a four engine plane from England all the way
over to Berlin, then anywhere from fifteen minutes to an
hour of pure stark terror. Statistically, you could not survive.
In the Eighth Air Force, they were promised after thirty
five missions you get to go home. CAED twenty two
(06:01):
is exactly right about this. They just kept raising the
number of missions. I know guys that flew as many
as one hundred missions. Statistically, you couldn't do that. Statistically,
in twenty five missions, you were sure to be shot down.
Your cancers then were poor. If you did survive, you
were going to be picked up as a pow Your
cancers are being successfully put into a pow cas were
pretty slim because the German civilians, if they got to
(06:23):
you before the Luftwaffa did, they'd run you through the pitchfork. Now,
of course the German military authorities wanted to capture pilots
and cruise, not to kill them out in the field
because they wanted to interrogate him. If you finally got
into a powk, then your cancers is surviving. The war
were pretty good, although it was going to be a
rough war.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Engler. Any special thanks to the folks
who run the Stephen Ambrose Estate and for use of
these terrific stories about World War Two, particularly the part
that had to do with our industrial capacity and more
wherever the strategic and tactical efforts on our nation's behalf,
and we learn a lot about well the life of
(07:04):
some of these guys, specifically the Eighth Air Force, where
by twenty five missions you were sure to be shot down,
and as Ambrose pointed out, some of the men he
interviewed and talked to. They performed as many as a
hundred missions, the story of our Mighty Plains and the
men who flew them and the men who defended them.
(07:25):
Here on our American Stories, Leehabib Here, as we approach
our nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to
remind you that all the history stories you hear on
this show brought to you by the great folks at
Hillsdale College, and Hillsdale isn't just a great school for
your kids or grandkids to attend, but for you as well.
(07:45):
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to find out about their
terrific free online courses. Their series on communism is one
of the finest I've ever seen. Again, go to Hillsdale
dot edu and sign up for their free and terrific
online courses.
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Stephen Ambrose was one of America's leading biographers and historians.
Ambrose passed in two thousand and two, but his epic
storytelling accounts can now be heard here at Our American Stories,
(00:31):
thanks to those who run as estate. Our next story
is about the fundamental importance of air superiority in World
War Two. Here's Stephen Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The bombers in the Second World War were very much
bigger than anything that the First World War has seen,
going up to the really big ones like the B seventeen,
the B seventeen, the most famous of all, a foreig
engine bomber called the Flying Fortress. They all had in
common in these things. They carried a lot of armament
(01:02):
so that they could self defend. That is, there'd be
a gunner in the nose, a gunner and the tail,
a gunner in the belly, a gunner in the turret above.
These men were all there for defensive purposes, to drive
off enemy fighters, and at the expense of speed and maneuverability,
because they were all very heavy. People in the Air
ministry in Britain worked it out that statistically, your cancers
(01:25):
in a bomber were going to be very much higher
over Berlin or Bremen or Hamburg or wherever the target was.
Your chances are going to be a lot higher if
you got rid of all those gunners, got rid of
all of their guns, lightened your plane up so it
could fly higher and faster. And they said, so our
advice to you is to get them out of there
and to Amand the air crews, including the pilots and
the bombardier and the navigator, said, no way, we want
(01:49):
to be shooting back. The experts would say, but your
cancers and survival are going to be so much better
if you're up higher, flying faster. We want to be
shooting back, is the reply always. The American B seventeen
was called the Flying Fortress. The idea when it was
designed and in its initial deployments was that they had
(02:10):
a lot more range than a fighter aircraft and they
could set out from England was the idea over targets
inside Germany and could beat off any German attack from
fighter aircraft coming up to meet him. They found out
pretty early on that that really wasn't so even if
the B seventeens did everything right according to three kept
their formations, nevertheless, those German fighters were going to get
(02:30):
through very heavy losses. The British response to this was
night attacks. Now, of course the price you pay for
a bombing rate at night because you can't see the target.
So they went to well, well, bomb cities. You can
hardly miss a city as big as Berlin. Right. The
Americans didn't accept that proposition that, first of all, we've
(02:52):
got to give up daylight raids. It was to them
a confession of failure in the air war, and certainly
in the more open way, that the Bredier method wasn't
going to end the war or speed up the end
of the war in any way at all. I mean,
just bombing city, you're going to be any good? The
Birders replied that we keep the workers awake at night.
You know, there's a bombing rate in mid night. They
(03:13):
got to hear the sirens. They're up at eleven, they
got to get into the subways. They don't get out
until they're all clear at three am. They got to
go to work at six am, and so they're not
going to be very efficient at work. Well, well, I'll
tell you they was putting a lot of effort in
the seeing to it that a few German workers lost
some sleep at night. But the American use of the
weapon also has to be criticized. The Americans thought, there
(03:33):
there has got to be a key somewhere. There's got
to be a target somewhere. If you find that target,
you knock it out. Germany can't make war anymore. One point,
they had a terrific idea ball bearings. Everything in the
world moves on ball bearings. No wheel can turn without
ball bearings. There's not a car in Germany. There's not
a tank, there's not a truck. There's nothing in Germany
you can move without ball bearings. They only make ball
bearings in one place at Regan'sburg. Will knock that out,
(03:54):
and Germany will screech to a halt, and then it
will have to surrender. So they went after the ball
bearing plan. Nothing happened that they'd forgotten some basic principles
of economics. For one thing, there were ball bearings already
in storage at the various plants that were making the
trucks and tanks and airplanes for Germany. For another, there
were ball bearings in transit, and for a third, ball
(04:14):
bearings aren't all that hard to make. For a fourth,
as very often happened in all of these factory busting raids,
it looked very impressive from the air, a lot of smoke,
a lot of fire, so they were out of business.
Right of the machine tools hadn't been damaged at all.
You'd blown off some roofs, but the machine tools had
all survived. Now it would be wrong to dismiss operation
point blank, the strategic bombing of Germany that quickly to
(04:38):
force the Germans back into much smaller factories, and many
of them underground, almost to a cottage industry kind of
a situation. But it continued. In fact, Germany reached the
peak of her production in the Second World War in
the fall of nineteen forty four. One point the idea was,
will knock out hydroelectric plants. They're not so easy to
knock out. It turned out then it was going to
(04:59):
be oil refies, and that was the most productive target.
If they'd come to that earlier and stayed added harder,
they might well have brought Germany to a halt. As
far as the GI is, the infantry stationed in England
during the build up. We're concerned. These airmen had the softest,
cushiest life imaginable. They were in barracks, they had warm beds,
(05:19):
they had hot foods, they got passes to London all
the time. They just sat around and played cards and
went in and got drunken night and it was just
a marvelous life. To the men leading the life, it
was the worst possible life. They had nothing to do
in England, so they just were killing time. They were
there for the purpose of carrying out raids over Germany,
and when the weather was appropriate and they carried out
(05:40):
these raids, it meant hours of boredom, just droning on
in a four engine plane from England all the way
over to Berlin, then anywhere from fifteen minutes to an
hour of pure stark terror. Statistically, you could not survive.
In the Eighth Air Force, they were promised after thirty
five missions you get to go home. CAED twenty two
(06:01):
is exactly right about this. They just kept raising the
number of missions. I know guys that flew as many
as one hundred missions. Statistically, you couldn't do that. Statistically,
in twenty five missions, you were sure to be shot down.
Your cancers then were poor. If you did survive, you
were going to be picked up as a pow Your
cancers are being successfully put into a pow cas were
pretty slim because the German civilians, if they got to
(06:23):
you before the Luftwaffa did, they'd run you through the pitchfork. Now,
of course the German military authorities wanted to capture pilots
and cruise, not to kill them out in the field
because they wanted to interrogate him. If you finally got
into a powk, then your cancers is surviving. The war
were pretty good, although it was going to be a
rough war.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Engler. Any special thanks to the folks
who run the Stephen Ambrose Estate and for use of
these terrific stories about World War Two, particularly the part
that had to do with our industrial capacity and more
wherever the strategic and tactical efforts on our nation's behalf,
and we learn a lot about well the life of
(07:04):
some of these guys, specifically the Eighth Air Force, where
by twenty five missions you were sure to be shot down,
and as Ambrose pointed out, some of the men he
interviewed and talked to. They performed as many as a
hundred missions, the story of our Mighty Plains and the
men who flew them and the men who defended them.
(07:25):
Here on our American Stories, Leehabib Here, as we approach
our nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, I'd like to
remind you that all the history stories you hear on
this show brought to you by the great folks at
Hillsdale College, and Hillsdale isn't just a great school for
your kids or grandkids to attend, but for you as well.
(07:45):
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to find out about their
terrific free online courses. Their series on communism is one
of the finest I've ever seen. Again, go to Hillsdale
dot edu and sign up for their free and terrific
online courses.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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