May 3, 1943 - Amsterdam power station raid - 487 Sqn Venturas wiped out - was there an earlier fighter sweep?

[Alex Smart]

Hello Andrew,
This may just be a coincidence but the 8th AAF had similar attacks on the 4th May, 1943.
Or did the producers of the chronology in "armyairforces.com get the date wrong ?
I would not think that they would.
Here is the detail for the 4th.

65 HBs strike former Ford and General Motors plants at Antwerp. With this mission, P-47's begin providing ftr escort up to 175 mi. More than 30 B-17's and B-24's fly successful diversionary feint toward French coast, arousing more than 100 German ftrs (about half of total number in the region) and keeping many of them airborne long enough to prevent their attacking main effort.

With hindsight, were they warned by some spy source of these attacks on the 3rd and 4th ? It seems that a lot of E/A were airborne on these two days at just the right time.

Good hunting
Alex