The Greatest armade ever...?????

To all you aircraft pros... I have a question for you...

What is the greatest armada that has ever flown...?? How many planes have been in this armada, what kind of planes...???

Doolittle's Raiders

Small in numbers, but tops in significance. Showed Japan they can be hit. Showed the US we could hit Japan. Moral Booster. Major hit on main land japan.

Train

Here is an other great air Armada of the united states(Air Armada "show of force" above USS Missouri, 09/02/45)

The Ploesti 1000 plane raids into Romania in an effort to deny Germany oil.

Very low altitude flight for many miles pulling up to bombing altitude - maybe 1500' - 2500' or so for bombing and back down for the flight out.

B-24's, B-17's and B-25's took part.


It was a sumbitch of a mission.
I used to know a B-24 waist gunner who took part.
He made it through ok, but had a couple of adjacent planes in the formation that were blown out the sky with loss of all life.

One of the things that screwed up the raid, was a mis-timed turn into the target by one of the groups and that gave the game away to the Germans.

The Ploesti oil fields were surrounded by armament of all kinds as well as smoke generators to hide the fields.

Operation Tidal Wave or the raid on Ploesti had 178 aircraft from North Africa of which 52 were lost (B-24s). The Black Thursday raid on Schweinfurt 10/14/43 had 291 planes with 77 lost (B-17s). There were a number of 400 and 500 plane raids in 44 by the Brits and the US but the two 1000 plane raids on Panzer Lear during the Normandy break-out (St.Lo) in which "Carpet Bombing" was invented were the real armades. These raids had devastating results for the German Armor and helped clear the way to roll up the nazi.

A little more to Operation Tidal Wave than Ifirst thought
www.ww2guide.com...

I'd have to vote for the Ploesti raids too, absolutely huge attacks.

I also know a guy who was in a B-24 for those. He was a navigator, he took a huge chunk of shrapnel in the arm during one mission. The next mission, while h was in the hospital, his plane took a direct hit and blew up in midair with no survivors. He still carries the chink of shrapnel as a keepsake.

Interesting tidbit, in the 1970's, he was doing advertising for BMW. On a business trip in Munich, his hosts were giving him a tour of the city, and proudly said "And this is the famous Munich railway station!" To which he replied, "Oh, I know, I bombed it once."

Daily raids over Tokyo with one raid topping at over 650 B-29s.

Friggin B-29s.

Shattered OUT...

I think "Operation Varsity, 24 March 1945", still stands as the largest ever single aircraft operation.

On the morning of March 24, 1945, an enormous air armada crossed the Rhein River near Wesel in western Germany. The column, two-and-a-half hours long, consisted of more than 1,500 IX Troop Carrier Command airplanes and gliders. To their left were about 1,200 RAF airplanes and gliders. The entire assemblage was supported by 880 US and RAF fighters

Thats alot of aircraft

www.afa.org...