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FRIDAY, 30 JUNE 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 448: 153 bombers
and 539
fighters are dispatched to attack airfields; 1 fighter is lost; of
75 B-17s,
39 hit Montdidier Airfield, 24 hit Le Culot Airfield and 11 hit
Coxyde/Furnes
Airfield, Belgium; 27 B-17s are damaged; of 78 B-24s, 35 hit Conches
Airfield
and 26 hit Evreux/Fauville Airfield, France without loss. Escort is
provided
by 168 of 178 P-51s without loss escort and afterwards strafe
marshalling
yards, airfields, barges, barracks, a train, a factory, and a
warehouse with
good results. No enemy aircraft are encountered and no aircraft are
lost.
Other P-38s, P-47s and P-51s hit bridges, marshalling yards and
other
targets in France; they claim 3-3-4 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air
and 1-0-0
on the ground; 1 P-38 is lost (pilot is MIA) and 1 P-47 is damaged
beyond
repair (pilot is KIA).
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In France, 125+ B-26s and
A-20s,
using blind-bombing methods in bad weather, bomb fuel dumps and road
junctions at Conde-sur-Vire, Foret de Conches, Conde-sur-Noireau,
and Thury-
Harcourt; around 250 others are forced to abort due to weather; 600+
fighters
escort bombers, fly cover over the beach, and bomb marshalling yards
at
Chartres and Verneuil-sur-Avres, bridges E of Paris, and Evreux-Bueil,
and
Breux-sur-Avre-Trappes rail lines; the fighters fly armed
reconnaissance in
the Seine-Loire gap and along the Loire River, and Continent-based
fighters
of the IX Tactical Air Command attack communications targets in
advance of
the US and British positions; HQ 405th Fighter Group and 510th
Fighter
Squadron move from Christchurch, England to Picauville with P-47s.
112th
Liaison Squadron, Ninth Air Force (attached primarily to HQ Command,
SHAPE)
moves from Hurst Park to Heston, England with L-5s.
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