WW2 Precision daylight bombing of US Airforce

Thank you for your interest and your notes.
Ich found two other missions:
Sat, 31 Mar 45 – Mission: Wurzburg marshalling yard In Germany, 550+ A-20s, A-26s and B-26s hit storage depots at Ebrach, Wurzburg, and Marienburg, the marshalling yard at Wurzburg, the town area of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and a target of opportunity; fighters escort the bombers,…
Wed, 4 Apr 45 – Mission: Ehrbach oil storage In Germany, 330+ B-26s, A-20s and A-26s hit the Ebrach oil depot, Crailsheim marshalling yard and barracks area, Grossaspach supply depot, the town of Ellswangen, Backnang rail and road junction, and 2 targets of opportunity; fighters escort the bombers,…
in this adress:
https://www.387bg.com/387th%20Bombardment%20Group%20-%20Chronology.htm
search please for Ebrach in this site.

So we have, with your link, in total 3 missions of Marauders and Invaders and it seems all the craters come from these.
The A26 Invader planes could carry bombs up to 4 pieces of 1000lb. The B26 Marauder could carry two 2000lb bombs.
I intensively looked in the past for a relation of bomb weigt to crater size. It depends naturally also on the ground condition. But I found nothing up to now.
Cheers Toni

Those are some interesting photographs; one of them (the one with the dog) clearly shows what looks like bomb shrapnel damage on the concrete!

The photographs also explain more about the construction of the site; I couldn’t understand why the site was still in use today given the very small size (diameter) of the tanks?

It seems that the tanks are quite an unusual shape; they are tall and thin and extend underground with only the top section above ground. The top section of the tanks are protected by an earthen ‘bund’ and also a concrete wall; they are very well protected from almost anything but a direct-hit.

There is an account here of one of the raids; the weather was clearly a factor and it was known at the time that the bombs were dropped too far to the east.

http://www.416th.com/missions/mission256.html

I hadn’t actually thought about a decoy site but I’m assuming that the site was discovered by photo-reconnaissance in the first place anyway; it would have been very careless if the location of the site was given-away by intercepted decoded radio traffic after so much trouble had been taken to protect and conceal its location!

Hello friends,
yes, there was a railroad loading station. But it doesn’t exist nowadays. 40 tonns Gasoline trucks are used now.
I think there was no camouflage for such a large area. When you look at this area in Google Maps you can hardly see the tanks in the forrest.
Here are some actual pictures of this “Tanklager”

https://fgut.wordpress.com/bauwerke/wk2/militarische-anlagen2/bayern/ebrach/#jp-carousel-928

The site must have been further camouflaged during the war? Perhaps the valley further east was heavily hit as there was some kind of dummy site there to attract attention?

I note there are some bomb craters around the tanks. There are also many across the road. I suspect the valley floor between there may also have been heavily bombed – was there a rail siding there? Damage and craters to that would have been quickly repaired. I don’t see any craters anywhere on level ground, due to decades of re-development and agriculture.

I was unaware of these radar scans, so thanks for posting. Many hours of poking about ahead!

Yes, I watched the video on youtube (I could only get it to play at a tiny size via the link); didn’t understand much of it but it was evident that much of the facility is underground although the tanks themselves seemed very vulnerable to bombing.

I wonder where the error occurred in bombing the wrong valley; the bombing seems to be a nice tight pattern but it rather makes a mockery of ‘precision bombing’ if you bomb the wrong valley, especially if you bomb the wrong valley several times.

Presumably the facility was located through photo-reconnaissance so you’d have thought its location would be pinpointed and the photographs passed to the bomb groups for target planning.

Hi Creaking Door,
you are right, all bubbles are bomb craters, besides the fuel tanks. They bombed this facility three times. But always the wrong valley.
Did you watch the youtube film about the tank facility by using the link above?
Cheers Toni

Are all the smaller holes also bomb-craters? Maybe 500lb bombs and the larger ones 1000lb or 2000lb?

The larger bomb-craters seem pretty well concentrated but in the wrong place; in a valley to the east.

The relief picture top middle shows the tanks on the left side and 10m craters on the right side.

Ah, on my first quick look I took the tanks themselves to be the bomb-craters!

WW2 Precision daylight bombing of US Airforce

Hello friends,
the picture top left shows the fuel tank facility and the tanks above Eberau. The yellow sqaremarks show the detail picture top middle and top right.
The relief picture top middle shows the tanks on the left side and 10m craters on the right side. Others are 6-8m craters.
Give in Google maps the search for “Eberau” und you see the tanks clearly in the wood north of Eberau.
Don’t hesitate to ask me – your questions are welcome.

CRAKING DOOR: Look for nowadays details of the TANKLAGER here:
https://www.infranken.de/regional/bamberg/Millionen-Liter-Diesel-Besuch-im-Tanklager-bei-Ebrach;art212,1222436

Just FYI – and to introduce thread creep.

Lidar of some of England is available here:

https://www.lidarfinder.com

i was checking to see if the Montfode fuel tanks at Ardrossan were visible- but Scotland is not available.

Can you tell us something about the fuel storage tanks themselves; are they underground?

If the tanks are still in use to the present day, and are of a significant size, big enough to be located in the first place and permanent enough to become a bombing target, why don’t they show-up on the relief (lidar?) map when a crater 10m x 3m is clearly visible?

The terrain without vegetation is really interesting.
Thanks for posting, I wasn’t aware it was available.