August 17th, 1943---On the anniversary of its one year of operations in europe the Eighth Airforce launched a 376 B-17 raid on the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt and the Messerschmitt factory at Regensburg. This was the largest and furthest raid into Nazi Germany made by the USSAF to date. The Luftwaffe response was furious and resulted in the loss of 60 B-17's during this raid.