1944: THE ROAD TO BIG WEEK

The first Eighth Air Force daylight bombing campaign ended in defeat with the second Schweinfurt mission on October 14, 1943. The weather was closing in. Mid-October was the beginning of winter; so far in the war, each winter had been colder with more marginal weather than the one before. The winter of 1943-44 would not disappoint. There was thus a time concern, that the mission be flown before the weather closed off the possibility.