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SATURDAY, 22 APRIL 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 311: 803 bombers
and 859
fighters are dispatched to hit a marshalling yard at Hamm, Germany;
the
bombers claim 20-6-8 Luftwaffe aircraft and the fighters claim
40-2-16; 15
bombers and 13 fighters are lost:
1. 459 of 526 B-17s bomb the primary, 20 hit Bonn, 19 hit Soest, 15
hit
Hamm City and 1 hits a target of opportunity; 8 B-17s are lost, 1 is
damaged
beyond repair and 138 are damaged; casualties are 7 WIA and 89 MIA.
2. 179 of 277 B-24s hit the primary, 50 hit Koblenz and 36 hit
targets of
opportunity; 7 B-24s are lost, 14 damaged beyond repair and 59
damaged;
casualties are 46 KIA, 28 WIA and 64 MIA.
Escort is 132 P-38s, 485 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-47s and 242
Eighth
and Ninth Air Force P-51s; 2 P-38s, 5 P-47s and 6 P-51s are lost, 1
P-38 is
damaged beyond repair and 22 aircraft are damaged; casualties are 1
WIA and
12 MIA.
Mission 312: 5 of 5 B-17s drop 1.44 million leaflets on Orleans,
Tours,
Paris, Nantes, Lille, Reims, Chartres and Rouen, France at 2251-2344
hours
without loss.
Units arriving in England from the US: HQ 398th Bombardment Group
(Heavy)
and 600th, 601st, 602d and 603d Bombardment Squadrons (Heavy) at
Nuthampstead
with B-17s (first mission is 6 May); 844th, 845th, 846th and 847th
Bombardment Squadrons (Heavy), 489th Bombardment Group (Heavy), at
Halesworth
with B-24s (first mission is 30 May).
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): 400+ B-26s and about 90 A-20s
fly
two missions against V-weapon sites in the area of Saint-Omer and
Hesdin,
France. Nearly 275 P-47s and P-51s dive-bomb marshalling yards in
Belgium.
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