View source for Shuttle bombing

{{Short description|WWII bombing tactic}}
'''Shuttle bombing''' is a tactic where [[bomber]]s fly from their home base to bomb a first target and continue to a different location where they are refuelled and rearmed. The aircraft may then bomb a second target on the return leg to their home base.<ref>Staff. [http://www.accessscience.com/overflow.aspx?type=dst&root=0&term=Shuttle&searchStr=Shuttle%20bombing Shuttle bombing] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518120116/http://www.accessscience.com/overflow.aspx?type=dst&root=0&term=Shuttle&searchStr=Shuttle%20bombing |date=2011-05-18 }} [http://www.accessscience.com/about.aspx McGraw-Hill's AccessScience Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527010541/http://www.accessscience.com/about.aspx |date=2008-05-27 }}</ref><ref>Edward T. Russell (1999). [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/leaping_the_atlantic_wall.pdf Leaping the Atlantic Wall: Army Air Forces Campaigns in Western Europe, 1942–1945] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040627050452/http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/leaping_the_atlantic_wall.pdf |date=2004-06-27 }}(PDF), [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/ United States Air Force History and Museums Program] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061028045711/https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/ |date=2006-10-28 }}  pp. 26, 27. ([http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/atlanticwall/awpg8.htm HTML] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516094242/http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/atlanticwall/awpg8.htm |date=2008-05-16 }} copy on the website of [http://www.usaaf.net USAAF.net])</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Dear |editor-first1=I. C. B. |editor-last2=Foot |editor-first2=M. R. D. |title=The Oxford Companion to World War II |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2005|page=778|chapter=Shuttle Bombing|isbn=978-0192806703}}</ref> Some examples of operations which have used this tactic are:
* The [[Doolittle Raid]], 18 April 1942: 16 [[North American B-25 Mitchell|B-25s]] of the [[17th Bombardment Group]] bombed [[Tokyo]] from the {{USS| Hornet|CV-8|6}}, with the intent to land in various locations in [[East China|Eastern China]].
* The [[Battle of Stalingrad]], September 1942: [[Luftflotte 4]] of the [[Luftwaffe]] employed shuttle bombing tactics during the intense aerial bombardment of the city in the early days of the battle.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beevor |first1=Antony |title=Stalingrad |date=1999 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0140249850 |page=138}}</ref>
* [[Operation Bellicose]], June 1943: On the night of 20/21 June the RAF bombers departed from their bases in the United Kingdom and bombed [[Friedrichshafen]], landing in [[Algeria]], where they refuelled and rearmed. On the return leg they bombed the Italian naval base at [[La Spezia]].<ref>Christopher Chant (1986).  ''The Encyclopedia of Codenames of World War II'', Routledge, {{ISBN|0710207182}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=MNcNAAAAQAAJ&dq=Bellicose&pg=PA15 p. 15]</ref><ref>Jon Lake (2002). ''Lancaster Squadrons 1942–43'', Osprey, {{ISBN|1841763136}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=P0Qo5jvkNrgC&dq=shuttle+bombing,+Operation+Bellicose&pg=PA66  p. 66]</ref>
* [[Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission]], 17 August 1943: The 4th Bombardment Wing of the [[Eighth Air Force]] using B-17s equipped with "[[Tokyo tanks|Tokyo (fuel) tanks]]" for longer range, attacked the [[Messerschmitt Bf 109]] plants in [[Regensburg]] and then flew on to bases in [[Bône]], Berteaux and Telergma ([[French Algeria]]).<ref>{{cite book | title = Bombardiers lourds de la dernière guerre: B-17, forteresse volante, Avro Lancaster, B-24 Liberator | publisher = Editions Atlas | year = 1980 | isbn = 2731200316 }}</ref>  Most of the aircraft that had been damaged were stranded due to the poor repair facilities in Algeria and some of them were never returned to service.<ref>{{cite book | last = Miller | first = Donald | title = Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys who Fought the Air War against Nazi Germany | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = New York | year = 2006 | isbn = 0743235444 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/mastersofair00dona }}</ref> Eight days later, on 24 August, on the way back to their bases in Great Britain, the surviving B-17s bombed targets in [[Bordeaux]].
* [[Operation Frantic]], from June to September 1944: This was a series of air raids conducted by [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) bombers based in Britain or the Mediterranean which then landed at bases built by the Americans in [[Ukraine]] in the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>Charles T. O'Reilly (2001). ''Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945'' Lexington Books, {{ISBN|0739101951}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2LBvZPXmmqoC&dq=shuttle+bombing&pg=PA343 p. 343 ]</ref>  As a military operation it made possible eighteen strong attacks on important strategic targets in Germany which would otherwise have been immune.<ref>Deane, John R.  1947.  ''The Strange Alliance, The Story of our Efforts at Wartime Co-operation with Russia''.  The Viking Press. {{ISBN?}} {{page?|date=June 2023}}</ref>
* The [[Warsaw Uprising Airlift (1944)|Warsaw Airlift]], August to September 1944: During the [[Warsaw Uprising]] the Frantic airbases were used for an airdrop to the Poles fighting in the city. On 17 September 1944 70 B-17s and 57 P-51s flew without bombs from Italy and landed safely in the United Kingdom. On 18 September 107 of 110 B-17s dropped 1,248 containers of supplies to Polish forces in Warsaw and flew on to the USSR losing one B-17 with seven more damaged. The next day 100 B-17s and 61 P-51s left the USSR and bombed the marshalling yard at [[Szolnok]] in Hungary as they returned to bases in Italy.<ref>[http://paul.rutgers.edu/%7Emcgrew/wwii/usaf/html/Sep.44.html Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces September 1944: 17, 18, 19] copied from [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/titleindex.htm USAF History Publications] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091118145602/http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/titleindex.htm |date=18 November 2009}} & [http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/wwii_combat_chronology.pdf wwii combat chronology (pdf)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910114040/http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/wwii_combat_chronology.pdf |date=2008-09-10 }}</ref>
* [[Operation Paravane]], September 1944: A variation on the concept. On 11 September 1944 [[No. 9 Squadron RAF]] and [[No. 617 Squadron RAF]] flew from their home bases in Scotland to a temporary base at [[Yagodnik]], near [[Archangel, Russia|Archangel]] in the Soviet Union. From there, on 15 September, they bombed the [[German battleship Tirpitz]] in a Norwegian [[fjord]] and continued on back to Scotland.

While shuttle bombing offered several advantages, allowing distant targets to be hit and complicating the Axis defence arrangements, it posed a number of practical difficulties, not least the awkward relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Allied shuttle bombing operations were concluded in September 1944 after a three-month period and not repeated.

==References==
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[[Category:Aerial bombing]]
[[Category:Military aviation]]