|
THURSDAY, 27 JULY 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 498: 26 B-17s are
dispatched to hit coastal batteries at Ostend and Cap Gris
Nez/Calais area
but weather prevented bombing. In Belgium, of 120 B-24s, 34 hit a
Luftwaffe
communication center at Brussels/Vilvorde, 20 hit a coastal battery
at
Gravelines, 11 hit oil installations and industrial plants at Ghent
and 1
hits a target of opportunity; 1 B-24 is damaged beyond repair and 32
damaged.
Escort is provided by 154 P-38s, P-47s and P-51; they claim 1-0-0
aircraft on
the ground; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot is MIA).
Mission 499: 193 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s fly fighter-bomber mission
against
rail traffic S of Rouen and Amiens; they claim 0-0-1 aircraft on the
ground;
2 P-38s and 1 P-51 are lost (pilots are MIA); 1 P-51 is damaged
beyond repair
and 2 P-47s are damaged.
Mission 500: 7 of 7 B-17s drop leaflets in the Netherlands and
France
during the night.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In France, bad weather causes
the
recall of B-26s and A-20s sent to bomb Loire and Seine River
bridges;
fighters attack rail lines, enemy installations and movements NW and
SW of
Paris, and bomb gun positions and other military targets in the
Coutances-
Saint-Lo area in support of US ground forces which break through W
of Saint-
Lo; the 393d and 394th Fighter Squadrons, 367th Fighter Group, move
from
Ibsley, England to Crettevile with P-38s; and the 512th and 514th
Fighter
Squadrons, 406th Fighter Group, move from Ashford, England to
Tour-en-Bassin
with P-47s.
|
