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Operation Steinbock

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Operation Steinbock
DateJan - May 1944[1]
Location
Southern United Kingdom
Result British Victory
Belligerents
RAF United Kingdom Luftwaffe Germany
Commanders and leaders
Oberst Dietrich Peltz
Strength
500+ Night fighters 522 Bombers (87% servicable), 25 Fighter-Bombers[2]
Casualties and losses
Unknown 329 Bombers

Operation Steinbock was a late war German operation carried out by the Luftwaffe between January and May 1944 against targets in southern England, mainly in and around the London area during the night. In Britain it is known as "the Baby Blitz", due to the much smaller scale of operations compared to the Luftwaffe's strategic bombing of the British Isles in 1940-41. Placed under the command of Generalmajor Dietrich Peltz the Luftflotte 3 assembled 474 bombers for the offensive. The operation, running parallel to Bomber Command's campaign known as the Battle of Berlin but on a much smaller scale, was launched more for the sake of propaganda and as a measure of retaliation, achieved very little in practical terms and the force suffered a loss of some 329 machines during the five months of operations before it was abandoned.[3]. Luftwaffe commanders like Hugo Sperrle had intended to use them against the Allied invasion fleet, which he predicted would land in Northern France in the summer, and eventually the revenge attacks gave way to the disruption of the impending Allied invasion of France.[4] But Steinbock had worn out the German bomber fleet to the extent it could not deliver any significant counter blows.[5]

The offensive marked the Luftwaffe's Kampfgruppen last large-scale bombing operation against England, and afterwards only the V1 cruise missiles and V2 ballistic rockets were used for hitting the British Isles.

Background

At the end of November 1943, Generalmajor Dietrich Peltz was been summoned to a conference where Hermann Göring informed him that he was to be placed in charge of a renewed large-scale bombing operation of Britain, and London in particular.[6] It was hoped that the operation would commence during December, and though this proved unrealistic, by the third week of January 1944, a force approaching 600 aircraft had been amassed by stripping five Kampfgruppen from the Italian front and by rebuilding existing bomber units in the West.[7] On 3 December, 1943, Göring issued orders for Unternehmen Steinbock ('Operation Capricorn'), with the objective of 'avenging terror attacks of the enemy'.[8] Wolfram von Richthofen was to provide Peltz with six Kampfgruppen (bomber wings), while Obdl would provide another three which were resting.[9] The bombers were to carry a so-called 'English mixture' - 70% incendinaries and 30% high explosive bombs, including large 1-tonne bombs and mines.[10]

Opposing forces

The Luftwaffe

Although a force of Heinkel He 177 heavy bombers was now available for the operation, the inventory still consisted largely of twin-engined medium bombers. The Ju 188s and Do 217s were of relatively recent developments, the great majority of the Ju 88s were of the A-4 model, essentially unchanged since 1941, when the original Blitz had wound down.[11]

Apart from the numbers of conventional medium and heavy level bombers, the Luftwaffe also employed a number of fast bomber types, such as the Ju 88S (a cleaned up and boosted version of the Ju 88A-4) or the Me 410 Hornisse and a number of fighter-bombers, known as Jabos in the Luftwaffe.[12] These were more difficult to intercept due to their great speed, but carried limited payload compared to the conventional bombers.[13]

The composition of the force was never static. Bomber units were disbanded, pulled off for refits, conversions or redeployed to other theatres of operation as the situation demanded it. By mid-March, Peltz's force had 232 servicable aircraft as 3./KG 2 was withdrawn for conversion to the Ju 188, while III./KG 30, along with II. and III. Gruppen of KG 6 were redeployed to support the occupation of Hungary.[14]

Radar

To confuse British radars, the ventral gondolas of some Ju 88s were fitted with an active radar jammer device called Kettenhund ("watchdog"), and the some bombers also sported the FuG 216 tail-warning radar, to detect British night-fighters before they could make their attack on their bomber.[15]

Order of battle

The following Luftwaffe units particated in Operation Steinbock:[16]

  • KG 2
    • Stab (Do 217)
    • I./KG 2 (Do 217)
    • II./KG 2 (Ju 188)
    • III./KG 2 (Do 217)
    • V./KG 2
  • KG 6
    • Stab (Ju 88)
    • I./KG 6 (Ju 188)
    • II./KG 6 (Ju 88)
    • III./KG 6 (Ju 88)
  • KG 30
    • I./KG 30 (Ju 88)
    • II./KG 30 (Ju 88)
  • KG 54
    • Stab/KG 54 (Ju 88)
    • I./KG 54 (Ju 88)
    • II./KG 54 (Ju 88)
  • KG 66
    • I./KG 66 (Ju 88 and Ju 188)

Operations

January

The first attack on London was mounted on the night of 21/22 January.[17] Codenamed Unternehmen Mars, sections of the British capital were given codenames after devastated German cities - Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, to emphasize the retaliatory nature of the operation for the air crews.[18] The first raid targeted the area designated as 'München', the Waterloo area of London, in two waves with just over 400 bomber sorties. Despite the marking of the target with white and green flares by the Luftwaffe's pathfinders, hardly any bombers reached London due to the lack of experience of the crews. The bombs and incendinaries were dropped throughout the Home Counties.[19]

Hitler was outraged that the Luftwaffe failed to find London though it was only 150 – 200 km from German ground control stations while the British were hitting German towns, not just city targets, from 1,000 km away in bad weather. Peltz, the commander-in-chief of the assault, said the failures also owed as much to the Luftwaffe's lack of interference-free radio as well as untrained crews. Peltz said, the British, with their H2S and Gee systems, were ahead of the Germans. The lack of powerful pathfinder groups also caused navigational problems as the few aircraft employed in this role were more at risk from interference than larger numbers. The British heavy defences often forced the Luftwaffe to fly meandering courses and German crews quickly got lost. Reconnaissance flights over England had also stopped, which prevented the Luftwaffe from working out British frequency bands.[20]

Approximately 40 bombers were lost to all causes.[21]

The first operation coincided with the Allied landings at Anzio in Italy, and immediately three of the Kampfgruppen were returned to Italy.[22] Bad weather also intervened and the next raid on London was delayed until the 28 January, with only Me 410 fast bombers and FW 190 fighter bombers taking part. On the night following a 285-strong bomber mission was mounted, that started a major fire in the Surrey Commercial Docks.[23]

February

March

April

May

Aftermath

Citations

  1. ^ Beale, 2005. pp. 312-320.
  2. ^ Hooton, 1997. p. 276.
  3. ^ Caldwell & Richard Muller
  4. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 318.
  5. ^ Boog 2008, p. 420.
  6. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 312.
  7. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 312.
  8. ^ Hooton, 1997. p. 276.
  9. ^ Hooton, 1997. p. 276.
  10. ^ Hooton, 1997. p. 276.
  11. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 314.
  12. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 314.
  13. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 314.
  14. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 317.
  15. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 314.
  16. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 312.
  17. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 315.
  18. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 315.
  19. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 315.
  20. ^ Boog 2008, p. 418.
  21. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 315.
  22. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 315.
  23. ^ Beale, 2005. p. 315.

Bibliography

  • Boog,Horst. Krebs,Gerhard. Vogel,Detlef . Germany and the Second World War, Volume IX/I: German Wartime Society 1939-1945: Politicization, Disintegration, and the Struggle for Survival. Oxford University Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0199282777
  • Donald Caldwell & Richard Muller. The Luftwaffe over Germany - Defense of the Reich. Greenhill books, MBI Publishing; 2007; ISBN 978-1-85367-712-0
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