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TUESDAY, 23 MAY 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 364: 1,045 bombers
and 562
fighters are dispatched to hit airfields and rail targets in France;
3
bombers are lost:
1. 580 B-17s are dispatched to the marshalling yard at Metz (34
bomb),
Epinal (36 bomb) and Chaumont (54 bomb); airfields at Orleans/Bricy
(17 bomb)
and Chateaudun (18 bomb); secondary targets hit are marshalling
yards at
Saarbrucken, Germany (139 bomb), Bayon (12 bomb), the town of
Neunkirchen,
Germany (37 bomb), Caen/Carpiquet Airfield (18 bomb) and 12 hit
targets of
opportunity; 2 B-17s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 50
damaged; 12
airmen are KIA and 4 WIA.
2. 465 B-24s are dispatched to hit airfields at Orleans/Bricy (167
bomb),
Bourges (84 bomb), Avord (88 bomb) and Etampes/Mondesir (97 bomb); 1
aircraft
hits a target of opportunity; 1 B-24 is lost, 1 damaged beyond
repair and 33
damaged; 10 airmen are KIA and 10 MIA.
Escort is provided by 96 P-38s, 142 P-47s and 324 P-51s; none are
lost and
no Luftwaffe aircraft are claimed; 1 P47 is damaged beyond repair
and 1 P-47
and 1 P-51 are damaged; 644 Ninth Air Force fighters also
participate with
the loss of 2 P-38s and 2 P-47s.
Mission 365: 103 P-51s are dispatched to bomb a railroad bridge at
Hasselt,
Belgium; 75 bomb escorted by 14 acting as top cover; 1 P-51 is lost,
the
pilot is MIA.
Mission 366: 4 of 5 B-17s drop 928,000 leaflets on Belgium and The
Netherlands without loss.
7 B-24s are dispatched on CARPETBAGGER operations.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In France, 15 B-26s bomb the
airfield at Beaumont-le-Roger in a predawn attack; during the
afternoon 58
B-26s bomb coastal batteries at Etretat/Sainte-Marie-Au-Bosc, Maisy
and Mont
Fleury; and 120+ P-38s strafe and bomb rolling stock in C France.
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