NEW: 
Translation into English powered by Google
August 24, 1944 was a remarkable day in the combat history of the 332nd Fighter Group. On the escort mission to the oil refinery and the airdrome in Pardubice, Czechoslovakia, its Mustangs encountered a couple of Fw 190s of III. Gruppe of SG 151 that had just taken off from the field. 1/Lt Charles E. McGee and 1/Lt William H. Thomas of the 302nd Squadron were credited with one aerial victory each. Both enemy aircraft were reported to crash near the runway.
What is even more interesting in connection with this blog is that 1/Lt McGee is considered to carry out the very first strafing attack in then Protectorate Bohemia nd Moravia. In the interview with the editor of the TheHistoryNet server, he recalled: "During that time, I saw a train pulling into a little station, so I dropped my nose and made a firing pass at the engine." The locomotive was not hit, but ten cars were slightly damaged and three people were wounded.
The particular passage of the Narrative Mission Report I received from Daniel L. Haulman Air Force Historical Research Agency include also coordinates that refer to the location approx. 4 miles south of the Pardubice airdrome. On the other hand, the only known (i.e. recorded) such attack occured 15 miles in south-west direction...
1/Lt McGee (b. 1919) flew 54 combat missions from May 5 to November 17, 1944. Besides the victory mentioned above he destroyed an aircraft on the groud in Yugoslavia on September 8, 1944. He was a veteran of wars in Korea and Vietnam and retired as a colonel in 1973.
