Combat claims by Dakotas of 46 group?

[phasselgren]

Hi,

ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY AIR FORCE: Monthly statistical summary of operations – June 1944 has info that surprised me. The Analysis of effort by type of aircraft for month of June includes the following Enemy casualties caused by Dakotas of the 46 Group: 1 Destroyed + 4 Damaged.

The Dakotas were normally unarmed but I read somewhere that some windows had holes that the troops carried in the aircraft could use to fire their machine guns. I have never seen an example were this was actually done. Another possibility is that an enemy aircraft crashed after collision with a Dakota. I have seen examples of this in Bomber Command but a total of 1 Destroyed + 4 Damaged seems very unlikely.

I made a quick check of the squadron ORBs for the Dakota units in 46 Group but found no info about combats and there are no combat reports from these squadrons in AIR 50. I have also checked Daily Intelligence/Operations Summaries for Allied Expeditionary Air Force without any luck.

I believe therefore that these claims belonged to another unit and were included under 46 Group by mistake. It would however be very interesting to hear if anybody has any information about encounters with enemy aircraft during June that involved 46 group.

Regards
Peter