US 8th Air Force "targets of opportunity"?

[Pat Atkins]

Just looking through the summary of USAAF operations for July 1944 here, and was wondering what the definition of "target of opportunity" for a B17 or B24 would be? Were there guidelines issued to crews, were potential targets formulated (and disseminated) in advance, were they mission-specific in any way? Or did it just mean in practice, "unload on anything which looks valuable to the enemy"? What piqued my interest was mentions like this one for 01 July 1944:

Of 78 B-17s, 24 hit Fleury, 24 hit Fressin, 21 hit Blengermont and 1
hits a target of opportunity [my italics]; 33 B-17s are damaged.

Cheers, Pat

[RSwank]

There is a master's thesis here about the bombing of Nijmegen on 22 February 1944 which was a "target of opportunity".

https://archive.org/stream/DTIC_ADA5...24070_djvu.txt

The author gets into the "definitions" (or at least a discussion) of "target of opportunity" and "target of last resort" and the theory vs the reality.

[edwest2]

Speaking generally, cloud cover over the primary target meant looking at a list of alternatives. The Germans usually set out drums that released smoke near targets, and which ones were lit depended on the prevailing winds. The bomber stream could not move in an uncoordinated way either. Bombers that were badly damaged and losing altitude, would jettison their bombs at some obvious landmark. In one case, this was where two rivers crossed each other. Other times, such landmarks were not so clear from altitude.


https://www.8thafhs.org/old/new/get_...mission_id=863


https://www.criticalpast.com/video/6...ld_aerial-view

[Pat Atkins]

Thanks for that, will have a look.

Cheers, Pat

For info, a summary from the document (targets of last resort appear, on first reading, to be synonymous with targets of opportunity):

'targets of last resort had to be a military objective (although this can be interpreted broadly), located in Germany, and third needed to be attacked without disrupting the formation’s fighter support"

[Pat Atkins]

Many thanks for the responses, very helpful - have tried to reply to this thread before, but for some reason it isn't showing. Anyway, much appreciated.

Cheers, Pat

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Pat Atkins

… have tried to reply to this thread before, but for some reason it isn't showing.

Cheers, Pat

Your first five posts need moderator approval before they show up. That way we guard against the forums getting flooded by spam.

[Pat Atkins]

Aha - thanks for the clarification!

Pat