Combined Bomber Offensive - Casablanca Directive

Casablanca Directive

COA report "vital industries" and the CBO target types

1. single-engine fighter aircraft (22 targets)
2. ball bearings (10)
3. petroleum products (39)
4. grinding wheels and crude abrasives (10)
5. nonferrous metals (13)
6. synthetic rubber and rubber tires (12)
7. submarine construction plants and bases (27)
8. military transport vehicles (7)
9. transportation
10. coking plants (89)
11. iron and steel works (14)
12. machine tools (12)
13. electric power (55)
14. electrical equipment (16)
15. optical precision instruments (3)
16. chemicals
17. food (21)
18. nitrogen (21)
19. anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery

For a list of notable combat operations of the Combined Bomber Offensive, see List of air operations during the Battle of Europe.

Both the British and the US (through the Air War Plans Division) had drawn up their plans for attacking the Axis powers.

After the British Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) published the "Bombers' Baedeker" in 1942 that identified the "bottleneck" German industries of oil, communications, and ball bearings, the Combined Chiefs of Staff agreed at the January 1943 Casablanca Conference to conduct the "Bomber Offensive from the United Kingdom" and the British Air Ministry issued the Casablanca directive on 4 February with the object of:

"The progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial and economic systems and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened. Every opportunity to be taken to attack Germany by day to destroy objectives that are unsuitable for night attack, to sustain continuous pressure on German morale, to impose heavy losses on German day fighter force and to conserve German fighter force away from the Russian and Mediterranean theatres of war."

After initiating the preparation of a U.S. targeting plan on December 9, 1942; on March 24, 1943, General "Hap" Arnold, the USAAF Commander requested target information from the British, and the "Report of Committee of Operations Analysts" was submitted to Arnold on March 8, 1943 and then to the Eighth Air Force commander as well as the British Air Ministry, the MEW, and the RAF commander. The COA report recommended 18 operations during each three-month phase (12 in each phase were expected to be successful) against a total of 76 specific targets. Using the COA report and information from the M.E.W., in April 1943 an Anglo-American committee (composed of British Chiefs of Staff and the American Joint Chiefs of Staff) under Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker; led by Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell, Jr.; and including Brig. Gen. Orvil A. Anderson completed a plan for the "Combined Bomber Offensive from the United Kingdom", which projected the US bomber strength for the four phases (944, 1,192, 1,746, & 2,702 bombers) through to 31 March 1944. Eaker added a summary and final changes such as: "If the growth of the German fighter strength is not arrested quickly, it may become literally impossible to carry out the destruction planned" ("Intermediate Objectives" section).