10 September 1944

[Larry deZeng]

On this date, P-47s from 78th Fighter Gp. blasted a Luftwaffe airfield identified as "Meinbullen". Well, after an exhaustive search through present day maps down to 1:100,00 scale, Google Earth, the 1937 German Atlas, Google, Gazetteers and a large pile of reference books, I have arrived at the conclusion that there is no such place. There was certainly no airfield or airstrip by that name.

There were a lot of aircraft there that day because the 78th claimed 35 destroyed and 18 damaged on the ground at that location, nearly all Ju 88s and He 111s.

There is circumstantial evidence that "Meinbullen" was in the Wiesbaden-Mainz-Frankfurt-Darmstadt area, but I could find no towns or villages with names that approximated "Meinbullen". I even check to see if it might be a natural feature such as a prominent hill or woods, but no luck.

Does the name "Meinbullen" mean anything to any of our members? Believe it or not, American fighter pilots usually had no idea of the correct name of the airfield they were attacking. They would pick the name of some tiny village near the airfield and this is what went into their after-action reports. That it also went into the Fighter Group records and official daily opsums is really surprising.

Larry

[JohnnyB]

Hi Larry,

it seems to me someone has written the way he heard it without knowing how to write it correctly.
Possible is "Rheinböllen" - spoken it sounds (a little bit) close to Meinbullen.
Here in germany I never heard such a name, even not if it´s a a onehorse-town.
May´ someone here knows this place and I can learn something more about my country

Ok - I´ve found something with the same typo and it seems it tells the same story :

http://www.station131.co.uk/78th_FG/...y%20L%20Lt.htm

There´s a river in germany called "Main". Even this river has nothing together with Bullen.

Best regards from germany,

Rainer

See image for Rheinböllen (marked with A)

[Heuser]

There were not so much a/f in this area with Ju 88 and He 111.

78.FG lost 42-75243 near Babenhausen and 43-25303 between Dudenhofen and Jügesheim. A 56th P-47 (42-27382) was also lost in this area. So I took quick look into to "Schafsweide" by Kurt Braatz; Mainbullen should have been Zellhausen, where NJG 4 lost 9 Ju 88 and one damaged; TGr. 30 and /or KG 55 lost 13 He 111 and 5 damaged.

Regards

Heuser

[Larry deZeng]

Thanks Rainer and Heuser. I know you spent some time trying to solve this puzzle and I really appreciate it.

Here is some additional information:

“Meinbullen”

Rheinböllen - two airfield possibilities:

Kastellaun (50 04 40 N – 07 27 00 E)
Notlandeplatz in Rhineland-Pfalz 16.4 km WNW of Rheinböllen.

Kirchberg (a.k.a. Maitzborn) (49 56 00 N – 07 25 20 E)
Feldflugplatz in Rhineland-Pfalz 20.5 km WSW of Rheinböllen.

These two are definite possibilities, but in my experience with these claims the pilots usually chose a town or village closer to the airfield. These distances, 16.4 km and 20.5 km, seem too far away when there were villages that were much closer that they could have selected for identification purposes.

Heuser -
The 78th FG’s losses for 10 September were (all P-47Ds, pilot’s last name with cause and location):
Lacy – hit by Flak at Meinbullen, KIA.
Clark – flew into the ground while strafing near Heilbronn, KIA.
Clague – hit by Flak near Graefenhausen (Gräfenhausen, 7.1 km NNW of Darmstadt?), POW.
McKinny – hit by Flak near Aschaffenburg, POW.
Parmelee – hit by Flak and crashed into a wall while belly-landing near Wiesbaden, KIA.
[Source: Kent D. Miller, Fighter Units & Pilots of the 8th Air Force, September 1942 – May 1945. Volume 1: Day-to-Day Operations – Fighter Group Histories. Atglen: Schiffer, 2001.]

The 78th also strafed “Germsheim” (Flugplatz Geinsheim? Flugplatz Germersheim?) the same day claiming 2 destroyed and 2 damaged (2 Me 410s, 1 He 111, 1 Ju 87 and 1 Fw 190). Geinsheim is 16.4 km SSE of Mainz, but Germersheim is way up the Rhein between Mannheim and Karlsruhe.

Any additional thoughts on this would be great.

Larry

[JohnnyB]

I would say "G e r n s heim" at the Rhine-river is what you looking for in the last row of your posting, Larry


Cheers,
Rainer

[Heuser]

Larry,

I know Rheinböllen and Kirchberg; the latter one was used by the Luftwaffe in 1940, both were larger meadows only.

I have Millers book, too. But it seems like he checked the MACR, but not the attached statements, J-Files nor the Air Crashes lists.

So according to these records:

Lacy: Babenhausen
Clark: RR station Darmstadt-Kranichstein
Clague: 1,5 km N Gräfenhausen
McKenny: Dudenhofen - Jügesheim
Parmelee: 4 Miles SSW St. Vith/B(statement of Cpt. Alfred F. Eaton in MACR 8690)

According to "Schafsweide", at least one of the strafing P-47 was hit by Flak over the a/f, McKenny or Lacy.

Hope this helps

Heuser

[Khorat]

Meinbullen = Mainbullau a small city - not far from the Wertheim airfield.

Geinsheim - there was a airfield and its about 15 km north of Gernsheim at the river rhine.

khorat

[Larry deZeng]

Thanks, Khorat. So far, Mainbullau is certainly the closest in spelling to Meinbullen. But the distances still seem too far from the nearest Luftwaffe Flugplatz: 25.1 km WSW of Fl.H. Wertheim/M. and 36 km SSE of Fl.H Babenhausen).

I am wondering if Mainbullau ("Meinbullen") was a temporary Abstellplatz set up to accomodate aircraft belonging to disbanded Kampfverbände and units withdrawing from France? Maybe it was just a long, level wheat- or cornfield used to temporarily park He 111s and Ju 88s? In any event, it was never listed by the Allies, and Ries/Dierich and Mattiello have nothing on it either.

Well, I guess we have gone about as far as we can go with this. Thanks again to everyone for their help.

Larry