Milestone
Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission
August 17, 1943
On 17 August 1943 the Eighth Air Force launched a double strike against the Schweinfurt ball-bearing works and the Regensburg fighter plant. Of the 230 B-17s that attacked Schweinfurt, roughly 300 Luftwaffe fighters shot down 36, without inflicting decisive damage on the factories — an early demonstration of the cost of deep raids into Germany without long-range fighter escort.