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FRIDAY, 23 JUNE 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 435: at midday 110
of 134
B-17s and 102 of 106 B-24s attack 12 CROSSBOW (V-weapon)
installations,
damaging at least 6 of them; 3 B-17s and 2 B-24s are damaged.
Fighter support
is furnished by 4 P-51 groups (141 of 161 aircraft) all of which
afterward
strafe transportation targets in the Paris area, destroying 3
locomotives,
100 pieces of rolling stock, and 14 motor vehicles; An exploding
ammunition
train causes a low-flying P-51 to crash, the only aircraft lost on
the
mission (pilot is MIA).
Mission 436: During the late afternoon, 109 B-17s are dispatched to
Nanteuil; 13 hit the primary and 2 hit targets of opportunity; the
rest abort
due to heavy cloud cover; 1 B-17 is lost and 2 are damaged; 1 airman
is WIA
and 10 MIA. Of 219 B-24s dispatched to airfields in France, 113 hit
Juvincourt, 46 hit Laon/Athies, 23 hit Coulommiers and 1 hits
Soissons; 6
B-24s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 81 are damaged; 1 airman
is KIA,
3 WIA and 58 MIA. Escort is provided by 155 P-47s and 83 P-51s;
afterwards
part of a P-47 group bombs and strafes a marshalling yard while the
remainder
of the group bombs and strafes a train carrying trucks and armored
cars,
destroying the locomotive, 3 trucks, and an armored car, and
damaging 20
freight
169 of 195 P-38s fly flighter-bomber missions in the Paris area; 2
P-38s
are lost (pilots are MIA.
21 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER mission during the night.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): Bad weather prevents A-20 and
B-26
missions during the morning; in the afternoon 175+ B-26s and A-20s
bomb 7
V-weapon sites in France; around 630 fighters provide escort and
also bomb
and strafe rail and road traffic and communications centers; 200
C-47s and
C-53s fly supplies to the Continent; and 404th Fighter Squadron,
371st
Fighter Group, moves from Bisterne, England to Beuzeville with
P-47s.
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