Historical Front
Revitalizing history through storytelling, images, & videos. 
World War II was the single most devastating conflict in world history. Around the globe, men and women of the ‘greatest generation’ were called on by their nations to serve. Experience these stories from the people who lived through them in real time.
The Bloody HundrethOfficially known as the 100th bomb group, these airmen carried out relentless bombing raids over Germany, enduring some of the most catastrophic losses of the war in the process. Flying and fighting at a high altitude meant that these airmen were subject to sub-freezing temperatures in the midst of aerial combat. The fall of 1943 proved to be catastrophic for the bloody hundreth.
August 17, 1943. U.S. Eighth Air Force conducted a two-pronged bombing raid on the German cities of Regensburg & Schweinfurt. 146 B-17s are the first to take off toward Regensburg, tasked with bombing a BF-109 fighter factory. The two-pronged strategy was devised in an attempt to split Germany’s defensive air power, but flight delays during takeoff that morning caused the Regensburg force to depart 45 minutes earlier than the Schweinfurt force. This gave the German Luftwaffe crucial time to refuel their fighter planes and consolidate a larger defense. The Schweinfurt task force of 222 B-17’s were now left to face the full force of the Luftwaffe, without fighter escort. The unprecedented air battle that ensued, included 300 German fighter planes, the largest force to ever attack an American bomber formation. By the end of the day, American forces had lost 60 b-17s and over 600 men.
“The U.S. Army Air Force put up a poster for morale purposes, it had a brave American airmen standing in a boxing stance, looking like Gene Tunney or Jack Dempsey ready to punch somebody out. There’s an incoming Focke-Wulf and it said at the top in screaming headlines, ‘WHO’S AFRAID OF THE FOCKE-WULF? Well, a hundred guys on base signed it and said, I am.” — Donald L. Miller. Author, Masters of the Air.
This poster hung inside the officer’s club of the Eighth Air Force. Poster design recreated by Historical Front.