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I have just received a couple of photos taken in Brno yesterday where wrecks of a German Hetzer tank destroyer (or Panzerjäger in German) were digged out.
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I was surfing the Internet yesterday when I came across to the link to the list of the airfields that were either captured and re-used or constructed by Allied engineering units in the ETO from June 1944 to May 1945.
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Soviet Air Force flew many strafing and dive-bombing missions to prevent German troops from surrending to U. S. Army in western Bohemia on May 8 and 9, 1945. They also tried to hit roads and communication hubs. Unfortunately, many errors due to various reasons occurred... I estimate that at least 1200 people were killed – most of them Czech and German civilians.
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Referring to updated Czech resources thirteen U. S. pilots were killed in strafing runs.
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On April 1, 1945 passenger train No. 1705 departing from the station of Veseli Nad Luznici (75 miles south of Prague) at 10.45 was strafed by a couple of Mustangs north-west of Jindrichuv Hradec at high noon. The bullet-ridden locomotive No. 354.719 was brought to halt immediately.
While civilians and many Hitlerjugend members were lucky enough to take cover from the machine gun fire in the nearby forrest both the driver and the boilerman were seriously wounded by hot steam coming out of the damaged engine. Even though they were given first aid on the spot and transferred to the hospital in Jindrichuv Hradec the former died later on the same day, the latter on April 6.
The same train was attacked again at 15.50 – the locomotive (of course, a different one from that mentioned above:-) was put out of service as well. Nobody was wounded in this case.
What is really strange about these accidents is the fact all the other strafing passes in Bohemia on April 1, 1945 occurred from 13.55 to 15.05 hrs. (as one can read in local recrods), which is entirely confirmed in U. S. resources saying that only unit dispatched on armed recce mission in this territory (oficially in the Prague-Pilsen area) from 13.50 to 15.00 hrs. was the 52nd Fighter Group of the 15th Air Force...
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This is rather a mysterious case: There is a note in the Summary of the Opperations of the Ninth Air Force saying the 354the Fighter Group reported to strafe various ground targets in the vicinity of "M/Y Roztok" on April 24, 1945. The pilots definitely meant the RR station at Roztoky, a village located a couple of miles north of Prague.
The former village president Mr. Stanislav Bolonsky, who is considered a well-informed local historian, hasn't confirmed whether any attack occured on this day and it wasn't mentioned in the village memory book at all.
On the other hand, twelve Mustangs of the 353rd Squadron flew an armed recconaissance mission in the vicinity of Prague between from approx. 7.30 to 8.30 hrs. dropping 24 fragmentation 260-pound bombs against barges and RR cars and buildings, Steve Blake dealing with the history of the 354th Fighter Group wrote to me recently.
Sources:
Air Force Historical Research Agency, roll B 5653, Ninth Air Force Summary of Operations No. 114 – 24 April 1945
Státní oblastní archiv v Praze, fond Sbírka staničních knih četnictva a Sboru národní bezpečnosti, Středočeský kraj; inv. č. 1063
BLAKE, Steve. E-mail message, March 15, 2007
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Yesterday SMSgt. Scott M. Reuter of the U.S. Embassy to Prague and Jay L. Bevard, director of the US Army Memorial Affairs Activity-Europe, took over remains of 2/Lt Williama L. Kiggins of the 31st Fighter Group, 15th Air Force, who died after his aircraft was lost to flak near the city of Brno on October 11, 1944. This ceremony was organized nine months after the remains were excavated in the area and three months after the memorial was unveiled.
(Photo: courtesy of the History Dept. of the Moravian Museum in Brno)
The remains will be trasferred to Landstuhl, Germany, and later on the Hawaii to conduct further examination. After that it will be decided whether the remains will be buried with the other remains found in 1946 to the Kiggins' grave in Toledo, Ohio.
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Seventeen locomotives of the total number of 375 that have been registered in my database of strafing attacks as "put out of service" were hit twice! The locos are as follows:
264.107
275.013
354.1142
354.123
354.134
354.159
423.014
434.205
434.2150
52 7469
524.0104
524.011
524.017
524.025
524.083
524.128
534.038
Obviously, this statistics refers only to those engines number plates of which are known (i.e. these were mentioned in the relevant report). In other words, there could be more such cases...
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Hopefully this is a complete list of known attacks of airfields in Bohemia and Moravia (or what is now the territory of the Czech Republic) carried out by RCAF and USAAF units (please see the attached sources).
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Set of pictures of scattered buildings as consequences of two raids of the 8th Air Force against the town of Karlovy Vary (Karslbad in German) from the archive of the renown photographer Jaroslav Houf has been made available.
A shot showing a destroyed bus at what is now the public transportation terminal within a short distance of the marshalling yards is also included. I have just received the picture in higher resolution from the site administrator so that many bullet holes are clearly visible. As far as I know at least two strafing attacks were reported in Karlovy Vary: on April 17 and May 4, 1945.
Source: FOUD, Karel, KRÁTKÝ, Vladislav, VLADAŘ Jan. Poslední akce : Operace amerického a britského letectva nad územím Čech v dubnu a květnu 1945. Plzeň : Nava, 1997, s. 146
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When U. S. fighters were approaching a RR station some 35 miles south-west of Prague at 8.45 a.m. on April 21, 1945 no stationary or moving train, a detached locomotive or another kind of rolling stock were present there ta the moment (to be precised: there is no note about them in the relevant report). Therefore it is rather strange the pilots selected this target for strafing... Their pass resulted in very slight damages: two bullet holes were found in a rail on the track from Prague to Pilsen and the phone line was interrupted.
Source: Národní archiv, fond Ministerstvo železnic, karton č. 4767, inv. č. 1380-45
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Yesterday I visited Video Google (for the first time) – what attracted my attention was the one-minute gun camera footage entitled "Allied Fighters Strafe Elite German Me-262 Jets". Well, no doubt these are nice colored images that must have been downloaded from World War 2 Pictures in Color but there is only one Me 262 (see below) as one blog reader pointed out and a number of Ju 87 dive bombers known as Stukas (as far as I can tell but the pleople commenting at Video Google have the same opinion) and even a C-47!!!
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2/Lt Ralph I. Jones of the 308th Squadron, 31st Fighter Group, was another victim of one of the air battles that were fought over this territory in the summer of 1944. His Mustang P-51B (Ser. No. 43-6851, nicknamed "Birmingham Boomerang") was shot down at 11.30 a.m. on August 28, 1944 in a dogfight with three Focke-Wulfs, which had taken off to intercept heavy bombers of the 15th Air Force on the raid against targets in Austria and Hungary.
The aircraft exploded before hitting the ground near the town of Znojmo, Czechoslovakia. The pilot didn't have any chance to bail out...
BTW, 2/Lt Jones was a tent-mate of 2/Lt Kiggins, who was KIA six weeks later near the airfield in Brno...
In 1946 a memorial to 2/Lt Jones was erected near the crash site but until the early 90's no name was mentioned. Later on a small metal sign was added but it has contained a wrong name: James Ralph.
Wrecks of 2/Lt Jones' Mustang
Memorial to 2/Lt Jones in 1983...
... and the current state
In October aviation enthusiasts tried to recover other wrecks but except three fragments nothing was found:
Sources:
RAJLICH Jiří. Mustangy nad protektorátem : Operace britského a amerického letectva nad českými zeměmi a německá obrana. Praha: MBI, 1997, s. 55.
ROUPEC Jiří. Sestřelen, neoslavován, ale nezapomenut. Rovnost, 23. srpna 1990.
Photos: courtesy of Moravian Museum and Jan Brecka
Jan Brecka, Moravian Museum
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I came across a a village history memory book on the Internet saying that on December 28, 1944 U. S. fighters spotted a passenger train north of Prague but eventually didn't strafe it.
What is the most interesting about this story is this the only case in this area I have heard of so far – all archival records I have gone through mention strafing attacks only in the areas of Nymburk (east of Prague) and Pardubice-Ceske Budejovice (east and south-east of Prague)!
The aircraft I am referring to belonged most likely to the fighter escort of the formation of heavy bombers of the 15th Air Force targets of which for this day were the oil refinery in Kralupy nad Vltavou and the oil storage in Roudnice nad Labem.
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On October 13, 2007 the Mayor of the City of Brno Roman Onderka and the Czech ex-RAF pilot Emil Bocek unveiled in the city district of Slatina a memorial desk in the shape of aircraft wing to 2/Lt William L. Kiggins, who crashed near what is now the Brno International Airport on October 11, 1944. His P-51B Mustang was shot down by AA fire while strafing oil cars and a loco in the RR station.
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Soviet ground-assault aircraft harassed German troops that were retreating in Czechoslovakia in a state of chaos to the west even on May 9, 1945. In the morning, for instance, many trucks, passenger cars, artillery prime movers, wagons and other vehicles loaded with ammunition, personal belongings etc. were destroyed in the vicinity of the town of Polna, which is located approx. 70 miles south-east of Prague – some of them at the main square.
Two of the vehicles that were hit at the town square
(Photo: courtesy of Mr. Jan Prchal)
Source: PRCHAL, Jan. Z historického kalendáře. Polenský zpravodaj [online]. 2005, č. 3 [cit. 2007-10-09]. Available at: ‹http://www.mesto-polna.cz/vismo/dokumenty2.asp?u=12549&id_org=12549&id=82124&p1=28689›.
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In April 1945 residents of the village of Ruzyne, which was situated on the outskirts of the city of Prague, were used to frequent U. S. fighters flying over their heads and hearing the noise of fire of the flak defending the aerodrome. They were not that suprised than seeing a Mustang, with the black and white checkerboard nose marking approaching form the west at 4 p.m. on April 16, 1945. But suddenly they found out there must have been something wrong with it: The ship was losing attitude and smoking...
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Whenever I am looking for basic information on fighters of the 8th Air Force I visit Peter Randall's great site Littlefriends.co.uk ("Little Friends" is a nickname of fighters used by bomber crew members).
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Fighters of both the 9th and 8th Air Force attacked the aerodrome in Cheb (Eger in German), Czechoslovakia several times in the last weeks of World War II – on April 16 and April 21, 1945, for instance – and destroyed dozens of enemy aircraft.
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When I was searching for information on the other day I came across to the article that originally appeared in the 357th Fighter Group Association Newsletter in 1997 and was re-published at various web sites. It concerns 1/Lt Irving E. Snedecker, its another member that was shot down by AA fire defending the Ruzyne aerodrome on April 17, 1945 (not on April 11, 1945 as mentioned in the text).
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The book on regional history of the area of the town of Chodova Plana (approx. 25 miles south-east of Cheb) mentiones one event I am really curious about as this is not described in any source on the air war over Bohemia. While strafing against the base of the Reichsarbeitdienst (the German National Work Service) in the soccer field on April 10, 1945 one of the aircraft was brought down by small arms fire and had to belly-landed at unknown spot. Explosions of bombs damaged the field kitchen. Other details were not provided. To be honest, the author may have referred to the crash that occured six days later in the same vicinity...
Source: Chodová Planá na konci války [online]. Last updated March 19, 2007 [cit. 2007-09-17]. Available at WWW: <http://www.hamelika.cz/OSTATNI/chodovapl.HTM>.
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The aviation archaeology group called Prazsky letecky archiv published a unique photo of the burning wreckage of a German Me 262 jet fighter south of the Prague/Ruzyne aerodrome. The pilot, whose identity is not known in the present, might have been brought down by either 1/Lt Vernon O. Fein or 1/Lt Henry A. Yandel of the 368th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force, on April 16, 1945. The point is that each of them was credited with destroyed a Me 262 in the vicinity of Prague on the afternoon armed reconnaissance mission in the Marianske Lazne-Praha (Marienbad-Prague) area.
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Starting on September 23, 2007 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) will air The War, a seven-part series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The staff inteviewed many U. S. veterans of army, naval and air foces in World War II to give their personal accounts of their combat service. Quentin C. Aanenson, a pilot whose task was to attack ground targets, was one of them.
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A memorial to the U. S. fighter 2/Lt William L. Kiggins, who perished on October 11, 1944 near what is now the civil airport in a strafing attack against the RR station, will be unveiled in Slatina district of the city of Brno at 2.30 p.m. on October 13, 2007.
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U. S. Army Air Force lost 28 in the years of 1944 and 1945. Referring to the particular MACRs No. 14204 and 14214 and to the German air enthusiast Ulf Podbielski only one Thunderbolt of the 367th Fighter Group (not two as Jiri Rajlich, Czech aviation historian, states) crashed near the town of Tachov on April 16, 1945.
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1/Lt Roland Sheridan of the 404th Fighter Group of the Ninth Air Force poses on the wing of a P-47 Thunderbolt, which is ready for take-off.
(Photo: courtesy of John Levesley)
Armament of this Thunderbolt – besides four 0.50-inch machine guns, a half of the standard firepower of this type which can be seen just next to the pilot – is composed of two 500-pound bombs and four 5-inch HVAR rockets (being carried under wings).
The 404th Fighter Group was dispatched to Czechoslovakia only once – on May 4, 1945 when the last large-scale combat operation of the Ninth Air Force occured in this area.
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This is to present some (hopefully interesting:-) statistics from the database containing basic information on attacks on ground targets in what is now the territory of the Czech Republic. 396 locomotives in total were strafed from October 1944 to May 1945, approx. 80 per cent of which were put out of service (there were seven engines that were shot up, fixed and hit again). Other 23 locomotives were damaged but remain in operational ocnditions or weren't hit at all. In case of 39 accidents, the result was not reported but one can imagine that a majority of those locomotives were also put out of service. The loco depots in Plzen, Tabor and Rakovnik suffered heavy losses but relevant figures concerning the depot in Zdice are missing – If weren't the ranking would look differen, I pressume. On a single day – on April 17, 1945 – fifty locomotives were put out of service.
Referring to this data I estimate the number of locomotives at least temporarily lost to fighters ranged 500 and 600.
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Residents of the village of Jesenice and the surroundings (located south of Prague) could see a very rare object in the afternoon on April 17, 1945: a single-engine aircraft painted in silver with white stars on the fuselage and on the wings lying in the fields...
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A commemorative table in the woods west of Prague, where a P-51D Mustang crashed on April 18, 1945, was unveiled under a common project of the aviation archaeology group called Prazsky letecky archiv (Prague Air Archive) and the local museum in the town of Rakovnik.
Contrary to some of his colleagues on previous days, the pilot 1/Lt Oscar T. Ridley of the 362nd Squadron of the 357th Fighter Group of the Eighth Air Force had a lot of good luck. Not only he bailed out, but he also succeeded to avoid captivity thanks to the local citizens who hid him until the end of the hostilities.
357th Fighter Group's task on this mission was to provide cover for heavy bombers attacking the marshalling yards in Kolin and Plzen, Czechoslovakia, and to prevent formidable Me 262 jets taking off from the Ruzyne airdrome to intercept them. They also strafed enemy planes on the ground. 1/Lt Ridley's Mustang was hit by AA fire at 1.20 p.m.
A metal tag of one of the six 0.50 cal. machine guns, fragments of the gun camera, the fuel level indicator and pieces of armored glass of the canopy (please see the pictures).
1/Lt Ridley (at that time in the rank of 2/Lt) shared with Capt. Paul R. Hatala of the 364th Squadron one air-to-ait victory (a Bf 109 fighter) in the vicinity of Leipzig, Germany, on March 2, 1945 (please see the encounter report).
In 2000 BGen. (ret.) Ridley visited the Museum of air battle over the Ore Mountains.
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Unknown number of U. S. fighters dropped three bombs on the RR station of Horazdovice-Babin (approx. 25 miles SE of Pilsen). Any damages on the rail yard, the locomotive depot or the rolling stock as well as any casualties were not reported. Only a pile of ties was set on fire and the wire system used for remote control of crossing gates, signalling etc. was put of service.
The total number of bombs was most likely higher as at least one of them didn't explode – its broken shell (please see the photo kindly provided by Mr. Petr Jezek) is now on display in the restaurant garden opposite the RR station. There is a note in the table that the house No. 448 was destroyed in the attack.
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The article entitled George Preddy: Top-Scoring World War II Mustang Ace, which gives an overview of the military career of this pilot, appeared on the TheHistoryNet server. It also mentiones Preddy's brother William, who was killed in then Czechslovakia.
The author Kelly Bell wrote: "Valor was apparently a family trait. On April 17, 1945, George's 20-year-old brother William, who had logged two victories in a P-51, was killed by anti-aircraft fire over Pilsen, Czechoslovakia." This should be corrected: 1/Lt William R. Preddy was shot down by flak defending the airdrome ner Ceske Budejovice (90 miles south of Prague) and mortally wounded.
According to the official list of aerial victories maintained by AFHRA, 1/L Preddy was credited only with one (Fw 190 fighter on March 2, 1945), on the same mission he also probably destroyed downed a Bf 109 fighter.
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Before heavy bombers of the Eighth Air Force struck at the marshalling yards in the city of Usti nad Labem (Aussig in German) in the north-western part of Czechoslovakia on April 17 and 19, 1945 fighter-bombers of the Ninth Air Force appeared on April 14, 1945.
According to U. S. archival sources eight Thunderbolts of a fighter group of the XIXth Tactical Air Command (the group number is not legible in the microfilm copy, unfortunately) dropped sixteen 260-pound bombs on what is believed "M/Y Aussig".
Martin Vesely wrote in his book on the air war over this territory – citing two wittnesses and the local authorities report that about 12 a.m. the chemical plant (Chemische Werke Aussig-Falkenau GmbH) and houses in the vicinity were damaged. Machine gun fire also broke windows at the hospital. Ten people were killed and some others wounded.
Sources:
Air Force Historical Research Agency, roll B 5653, Ninth Air Force Summary of Operations No. 104 — 14 April 1945
VESELÝ, Martin. Hvězdy nad Krušnohořím : Letecká válka nad severozápadními Čechami (1944-1945). Praha: Naše vojsko, 2005, s. 89
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On one of the afternoon missions of the 368th Fighter Group on April 17, 1945, Thunderbolts of its 397th Squadron were searching ground targets of opportunity between Dresden, Germany, and Prague, Czechoslovakia. They also reached the town of Litomerice, located approx. 35 miles north-west of Prague.
M. Vesely wrote on his book that 2/Lt Herbert F. Koenig was killed at 3.15 p.m. while he was strafing a military column in the vicinity of the village of Mlekojedy (south of Litomerice). His remains were excavated by the American Graves Registration Unit on August 8, 1946 and transferred to an unknown cemetery (as 2/Lt Koenig is not registered in the databases of American Battle Monument Commission or Department of Veterans Affairs.
Radovan Helt, another historian involved in research info air war over this territory, confirms that the aircraft crashed at the road connecting villages Mlekojedy and Lukavec on the left bank of the river Labe (Elbe). It was shot down by light flak, started to burn immediately and eventually hit the high-voltage or telephone lines. German soldiers found the dead body in the wreckage.
There is only a brief note in the relevant mission report of the 397th Squadron on 2/Lt Koenig's fate saying that the aircraft was seen to strike a telephone pole in a strafing pass and crash in vicinity of towns of Lovosice and Litomerice.
The list of locations in the Czechoslovakia where remains of U. S. soldiers were recovered after the war includes the village of Mlekojedy. No name was attached...
Sources:
VESELÝ, Martin. Hvězdy nad Krušnohořím : letecká válka nad severozápadními Čechami 1944-1945. Praha : Naše vojsko, 2005, s. 98
HELT, Radovan. A z nebe padaly bílé hvězdy : letecká válka nad Mostem v souvislostech, březen – duben 1945. Cheb : Svět křídel, 2007, s. 388-389
Air Force Historical Research Agency, 368th Fighter Group – 397th Fighter Squadron, Ops. Rep. — Sq. mission 532 — 17 April 1945
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The famous American color documentary entitled Thunderbolt and directed by Academy Award winner William Wyler and John Sturges was broadcast by the Czech Television two years ago. As I didn't watch it and even didn't have chance to record it I was more than pleased when I found out a copy (an illegal one, I guess:) has been posted to YouTube. The stars of the movie, which was released to cinemas in 1947, are pilots of the 57th Fighter Group, 12th USAAF, and their aircraft – P-47 Thunderbolts attacking ground targets in Italy in May 1944, primarily to support Allied troops in the area of Monte Cassino. To achieve maximum effect and authenticity the film was shot with several cameras simultaneously which were installed on board at different points. Don't pay much attention to the narative – it sometimes sound ridiculous, but one should bear in mind the fact it was made for propaganda purposes.
The entire film (duration: 44 mins, size ranges between 47 MB and 1,7 GB), which is placed in the public domain licence, can be now downloaded in various versions of the MPEG format from the Internet Archive. Be sure to check out whether yu have installed the correct codec.
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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.
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Last week I went to the information centre of the village of Mala Upa in the Giant Mountains (Krkonose in Czech) at the border with Poland. There is a permanent miniexhibition commemorating the most tragical flying accident that has ever happened in the area.
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Other marks left by U. S. fighter-bombers in Bohemia – particularly in the RR station of Horovice between Prague and Pilsen, which was attacked several times in the second half of April 1945. I received the following pictures from Mr. Petr Jezek of the local Military History Club.
Machine gun hits on the concrete wall next to the yard
Detail of the damaged iron hand rail above the wall
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The highest-ranking Soviet strafing ace was Alexandr Nikolajevic Jefimov (born on February 6, 1923), member of the 594th, 198th and 62nd Assault Regiments. He was credited 85 enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground and five other in the air. From 1943 until the end of the hostilities he flew 222 combat missions. He was twice awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union. More biographical information can be found in the cyrillic.
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An object identified later by the police expert as an "unexploded air bomb weighing approx. 100 pound" was found by accident in the garden of a house on the western outskirts of the town of Tabor, 60 miles south of Prague. The police expert confirmed yesterday this was a German common fragmentation bomb marked SD-50.
Initially I was thinking only about bombs being dropped by the Ninth Air Force fighters on April 24 or 29, 1945 in a strafing attack on the RR station and the locomotive depot which were located not that far from the garden and some of the bombs may have been used against another target... Unfortunately, there are no dimensions or another relevant information in the only photo which was taken by police on the spot and which is available to public. What is fairly confusing are the screw holes on the left...
Photo: Police Department of the South-Bohemian District
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Pilots of the 94th Squadron, 1st Fighter Group, 15th USAAF, were following a rail line south from Strakonice, Czechoslovakia, to Passau, Austria, when they sighted a freight train approximately one mile north of Vimperk (Winterberg). As this run is not confirmed in local records (as far as I can tell) I have to count on documents available in the AFHRA (thanks for the copy to Mr. Jim Graham, a former member of the 1st FG). Lt Long claimed a locomotive destroyed, Lt Eberhardt and Lt Parker each three cars damaged and two more were hit by Lt Griffith.
Source: Air Force Historical Research Agency, 94th Fighter Squadron – 1st Fighter Group, Narrative Mission Report No. 1333 – 2 April 1945
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The other day a blog reader sent me a photo of the original memorial to 1/Lt Robert W. Whitehead, who was killed in a dogfight on April 11, 1945 south-east of Ceske Budejovice, Czechoslovakia. 1/Lt Whitehead with his flight of the 37th Squadron, 14th Fighter Group, 15th USAAF, had destroyed a couple of locomotives and railroad cars in the area when he encountered a pair of FW 190s returning to the base from a fighter-bomber mission in Austria or Moravia. The winner was subsequently shot down by 1/Lt Whitehead's wingman 1/Lt Harry R Morris Jr.
I have recieved the other images from Mr. Vladimir Kos from the town of Trebon, who is an aviation fan.
Current commemorative desk crash site (The components are not definitely original – does anynone identify what aircraft were they taken from?)
Detail of the text
Symbolic memorial composed of a remaing blade of 1/Lt Whitehead's P-38 in the neighbouring cemetery where he used to be buried. Notice the incorrect name: Bob Weit.
Current state of the memorial – notice the desk under the blade with the correct name.
Wrecks of the above mentioned Fw 190 lying next to a country road four miles away... The German pilot bailed out and survived.
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What is the most accurate expression of the state of locomotives that were hit in strafing runs – destroyed, out of service or damaged? As far as I am concerned and in general, the correct answer is out of service. The reason is simple: This describes what really happened to these locomotives and was, by the way, widely used in police and railroad administration reports (dienstfähig or betriebsfähig in German).
As steam locomotive was in principle similar to a pressure tank even a single bullet penetrating the boiler or another crucial component of the engine caused that steam pressure to decrease immediately, which eventually brought the locomotive to a halt and it had to be towed to the repair shop. The period of maintenance obviously varied depending on how seriously the locomotive had been damaged.
Many locomotives that were initially considered only damaged (i.e. were able to keep on moving from the accident site) were subsequently, after further examination, denoted out of service. There is no statistics available to confirm this presumption, which is based on the "CVs" of locomotives kindly provided by blog readers.
On the other hand, the only case of total loss of a locomotive due to action of fighter-bombers I am familiar with occured at a RR station north of Pilsen on April 18, 1945. The others remained in service for twenty years, for instance, after being fixed.
U. S. fighter units made distinction between destroyed and damaged locomotives in mission reports but it's not clear (at least to me) whether pilots were really able to judge whether a particular locomotive was destroyed or damaged from their view when strafing or leaving the target area. I haven't found out any criteria for this classification.
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The locomotive depot in Rakovnik, approx. 20 miles west of Prague, suffered heavy losses to U. S. fighters in the second half of April and in early May 1945. On April 20, 1945 at 1.25 p.m., for instance, seven locomotives were put out of service and other three and seven diesel railroad cars were damaged in a strafing run performed by what is very likely to be 395th Squadron of the 368th Fighter Group. On one of the group's nine armed recce missions on that day the pilots found 13 to 15 locomotives (some of them without steam) and 100 plus cars of various type in "M/Y Rokevnik". Claims of the flight led by 2/Lt Gradon E. Mongar were slightly lower than those mentioned in the report of the Railroad Directorate in Pilsen: four destroyed and five damaged locomotives:
Lt. Onusseit (1+1) Lt. Lawrence Marsch (2+1 and he also left one box car burning in the yard) Lt. William Ponton (0+2) 2/Lt. Mongar (1+1)
Sources:
Národní archiv, fond Ministerstvo železnic, karton č. 4767, inv. č. 1380-45
Air Force Historical Research Agency, 368th Fighter Group – 395th Fighter Squadron, OPSFLASH No. 2 – April 20, 1945 (courtesy of Tim Grace, the 368th FG Association)
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According to Arthur C. Fiedler's post to the 12 O'Clock High! discussion forum (thanks to Michal Plavec for letting me know), who served in the 317th Squadron, 325th Fighter Group, 15th USAAF, his fellow pilot, 2/Lt William C. Margetts, didn't die on an escort and strafing mission to the Pardubice oil refinery on December 28, 1944 but was seriously injured. He had to belly-landed due to a mechanical failure of his P-51 (Ser. No. 44-15357) north of the town of Pelhrimov, Czechoslovakia, as he didn't manage to open the canopy and to bail out.
There is no evidence of 2/Lt Margetts having joined other pilots of the 325th FG shotting up rolling stock in this area.
Mr. Zdenek Bicik, Czech historian dealing with the air war over Czechoslovakia, wrote 2/Lt Margetts had been captured and stayed in the local hospital until January 3, 1945 when he was transferred to Prague. He died in 2004 in the United States.
Copy of the report of the local police station on this event (in German)
BTW, Capt. Arthur C. Fiedler achieved eight aerial victories during the war and became eight-highest ranking ace of the 325th Fighter Group.
Source: BIČÍK, Zdeněk. Epizoda z prosincového náletu na Pardubice. Zprávy Klubu přátel Pardubicka. 1978, č. 1, s. 6-7.
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The U. S. foundation National Combat History Archive announced that they had succeeded to recover original gun camera footages of the 8th Air Force's fighters (including Yeager, Anderson, Gentile, Zemke a Christiansen) from the period of March 1944 to May 1945. To be honest, I have read the press release several times but it isn't clear to me under what conditions this unique material will be available to general public...
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On April 18, 1945 three locomotives without stream were hit in the RR station of Kaznejov, approx. 10 miles north of Pilsen, at 6.15 p.m. While two of them may have been simply left bullet-ridden as usual the last one was thrown to the field in the distance of tens of yards due to explosion of ammunition that was loaded in a box car standing on the side track! It remained there as it was for a couple of weeks until it went directly to scrap. As far as I can tell this is the only case of a total loss of a locomotive to fighter-bombers in the Czech territory.
Two pictures show what happened to the locomotive (copy: courtesy of Mr. Pavel Spěvák).
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Some of ten aircraft strafed a personnel train heading to Pisek near the RR station of Cervena nad Vltavou at 10.30 a.m. on April 24, 1945. Despite the fact the train stopped immediately and passengers and the staff got out to protect from being hit by machine gun seven people were killed (including two German soldiers) and 22 others (including six soldiers) suffered wounds. Two local police officers were present so that first-hand account could be written down. The locomotive was, of course, shot up and not able to move further and all eleven cars were damaged. First aid was provided on the spot and then they were taken to the hospital in Pisek.
As there was no other accident of similar circumstances reported on that day one can be fairly sure that attackers were pilots of the 397th Squadron of the 368th Fighter Group, who dropped bombs on the town of Tabor before, even though their description is different little bit (but it was obviously common when one compares Czech and American archival sources) and no particular coordinates were given: "They also strafed a troop train of 5 cars slightly west of the M/Y (i.e. Tabor), damaged all of the cars and killing or wounding about 100 personnel as they left the train." Cervena nad Vltavou is located 20 miles south-west of Tabor.
Sources:
Air Force Historical Research Agency, 368th Fighter Group – 397th Fighter Squadron, Ops. Rep. – Sq. mission 544 – April 24, 1945 (courtesy of Tim Grace)
Národní archiv, Zemské četnické velitelství Praha, karton. č. 904, inv. č. 7389/45
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Once again, I have been going through summaries of operations on the Ninth Air Force's fighter units. These can't certainly replace detailed mission reports but are good enough to get an overview. Copies of these documents from the Air Force Historical Research Agency are stired on 16-milimeter microfilm I received ten years or so ago so that it's necessary to be patient to find out what one is looking for – I keep on complaining about the technology in such cases... It is blessing digital cameras are available:-)
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Unguided air-to-ground missiles definitely increased firepower and efectiveness of Allied tactical air force. Americans seemed to get left behind the British in this case. The first unit of the Ninth Air Force to be armed with 5-inch HVAR rockets (High-Velocity Aircraft Rocket) was the 513th Squadron of the 406th Fighter Group. The target of the premier mission of its Thunderbolts carrying 48 HVARs was the railroad hub in Nevers in eastern France. Explosions destroyed 25 locomotives, a flak tower and the maintenance depot.
Ian Gooderson of University of London in his article Allied Fighter-Bombers versus German Armour in North-West Europe 1944-1945: Myths and Realities summarizes the score of the 513th Squadron from July to September 1944: 1117 rockets were released and pilots claimed 85 tanks knocked out and another 29 damaged and 164 other vehicles knocked out and 23 more were damaged (in reality, the figures were lower, I pressume, as later investigation teams usually confirmed only a smaller portions of such kills byaircraft weapons). Even though the training of American pilots was not that extensive as of British counterparts, the experimental phase of using HVARs was considered fairly successful.
Ninth Air Force's fighter groups which were operated in Bohemia in April and May 1945 were also equipped with HVARs – the 368 FG was particularly active on April 29 and 30. According to their mission reports they fired 24 and 20 rockets, respectively, at rail and road traffic in Bohemia, which is in total one fourth of all rockets used during this month!
Sources:
GOODERSON, Ian. Allied Fighter-Bombers versus German Armour in North-West Europe 1944-1945: Myths and Realities. Journal of Strategic Studies. 1991, vol. 14, No. 2, s. 210-231.
ČERNÝ, O. Letecké raketové střely. Letectví. 1946, roč. 22, č. 4, s. 111-113.
SPIRES, David N. Air Power for Patton: The XIX Tactical Air Command in the Second World War. Washington, D. C. : Air Force History and Museums Program, 2002, s. 63-64 Available at: <https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/Annotations/spireair.htm>. ISBN 0-16-051081-3.
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Another must-see video containing guncamera footage that has been posted to YouTube recently. This must have been taken by P-38s of the 8th Air Force on a strafing mission somewhere in the Nazi-occupied Europe or in Germany prior to the invasion. P-38s fire at parked transport Ju 52s and twin-engine bombers (without being under camouflage) and hangars etc.
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Wounded German soldiers on the hospital train No. 67, which was heading out of Prague east towards Kolin, had really good luck on April 26, 1945. Fighters (twelve in total were seen in this vicinity) selected the locomotive Ser. No. 434.2262 as the only target in this case. The local police station reported no casualties at all. This locomotive as well as the other one standing probably without steam on the side track were strafed and subsequently were towed back to the nearest RR station. The train went on being pulled by replacement engine with only a short delay. A house next to the line was slightly damaged.
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Three P-51s of the 15th USAAF strafed a personnel train heading to Beroun a couple of miles south-west of Prague at 1.45 p.m. on April 4, 1945. The locomotive was put out of service by a few hits.
A bullet hole in the hand rail next to the tracks caused by 0.50 machine guns fire
(Photo: Petr Kubin; courtesy: Michal Strejcek, webmaster of www.cernosice.org)
While the train staff escaped without harm, one passenger was killed and three other were seriously wounded and were carried to hospital.
Source: Národní archiv, fond Zemské četnické velitelství Praha, karton č. 904, inv. č. 7737/45
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On April 30, 1945 the 9th USAAF aircraft, most likely of the 396th Squadron, 368th Fighter Group, attacked the RR station of Mladotice, north of Pilsen, which is a crossroads of two lines (one of them heads towards to Pilsen). They certainly targetted the tracks and the small repair shop but many bombs fell in the middle of houses and farm buildings (please see the chart). Many of them were damaged. The local chronicle says Americans appeared at 7.30 a.m. and there were 22 holes in total in the village. Three people died. According to the mission report, the 396th Squadron dropped 500-pound bombs and fired 16 rockets.
The rapair shop at Mladotice (the state in 2006, courtesy of Mr. Pavel Spevak)
A part of the relevant mission report
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On April 21, 1945 at 9 a.m. the 397th Squadron, 368th Fighter Group, 9th USAAF conducted what was likely to be tha last air strike on the modern airdrome in Cheb (Eger). The following six pilots shared the total score of six destroyed and one damaged ground kills:
Capt. Edward W. Dame: 1 dest. U/I training aircraft and 1/2 dest. Me 410
1/Lt Henry A. Yandel: 1 dest. Do 217 and 1 dam. He 111
1/Lt Clifford J. Price: 1 dest. Do 217
?/Lt Les Leavoy: 1 dest. Do 217
?/Lt Hunt: 1 dest. Do 217
2/Lt Robert V. Arrington: 1/2 dest. Me 410
BTW, 1/Lt Yandel shot down a Me 262 after it got airborne from the Ruzyne A/D on April 16, 1945.
What we makes this story more interesting is narration of Mr, Price, which was aired within the HBO Memorial Living project in 2001. He said: It was always hazardous attacking airfields, because they were usually ringed with flak guns. On normal strafing runs, we would fly at around 325 miles per hour, but for airfields we would fly at over 500 miles per hour. At an airfield in Czechoslovakia I came in on four DO217 bombers, which were being loaded with V1 rockets on the wings. I was in perfect position so my single strafing run destroyed all four bombers, plus an ME109 fighter. I was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for that mission.
BTW, his name is not included in the official list of DFC holders...
Mr. Price, resident of Edgerton, Wisconsin, passed away in Madison, Wisconsin on January 16, 2009 at the age of 86.
There is no mention of any Do 217 carrying V-1 in the mission report ofthe 397th Squadron – 1/Lt Price may have spotted radio-controlled glide bomb Henschel Hs 323. It was originally designed for attacks against ships but was also used against bridges in the Normandy campaign. As Jafü Mittelrhein pointed out in the Axis History discussion forum the only Luftwaffe combat unit in which bombers (Heinkel He 111s) carring V-1s saw action was Kampfgeschwader 53 (KG 53). However, there is no evidence that it was based in Cheb in April 1945.
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Wrecks of a P-51B Mustang (including 0.50-caliber bullets, small metal sheets painted in olive drab, asbestos net from the cooler and the speed reducing gear, burnt-out parts of the cockpit etc.) were found south-west of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. Researchers of the Moravian Museum have been involved in this project.
The aircraft (nicknamed "Miss Betty") was shot down by light flak that defended the nearby airdrome while it was strafing a RR station where one (or four?) oil cars were left burning and a locomotive was destroyed. The pilot, 2/Lt William L. Kiggins of the 308th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group, 15th USAAF, perished. His body was buried in the local cemetery and exhumed on September 18, 1946.
According to the INTOPS Summary 308th Squadron was credited with two destroyed and two damaged enemy planes on the A/D but members of the local police post counted nine destroyed and nineteen damaged planes...
Human remains of 2/Lt Kiggins have been stored in the City Cemetery Service and the U. S. Embassy has been officially approached to communicate with the 2/Lt Kiggins' family whether they would like to take over the remains and place them into the grave in Toledo, Ohio.
An event commemorating 2/Lt Kiggins's death will be held on October 13, 2007 in Brno-Slatina.
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The blog was activated on July 11, 2006 – this means that we celebrate the first anniversary today! I would like to express my thanks to both readers for their interest and support to my efforts and, of course, to those people that have regularly or occasionally contributed their comments, memories and information I was not familiar with before. Since last month I have been translating at least some posts into English so that the content could be attracted attention of English-speaking audience.
