Charles Salinsky 355th FG, 337 FS --> mission on 21/24 June 1944

[drgondog]

This particular day marked a change to the 355th FG Standard Operating Procedure for airfield strafing. First the lead ships took out all visible anti aircraft batteries, and established a top cover for the strafers to provide security against German fighters.

Second, one pilot was designated to keep track of aircraft location and numbers on the airfield and to best of ability identify the aircraft by location.

Third that pilot also was directed to orbit the field, circumstances permitting (.ie. flak), and film the fires.

The 355th intelligence de-briefing was explicit that 40 aircraft were identified and placed all around the airfield and the combat film was crodd correlated against the orbiting pilot's notes and film.

While there may have been overclaiming, two things are somewhat obvious. 1.) there were a lot more than one staffel at Soucelles, and 2.) the location of the fires corresponded to the notes and the combat film.

What should be questioned is whether all fires resulted in destruction and how many were damaged beyond economic repair even if not burned.

Strafing claims and awards were very tough but the 355th made it as close to a science as possible and did have the highest number destroyed on the ground by a wide margin (at least credits).