28/9/1944 Jabo raid Molenhoek area

[noggin]

Has anybody details of raids on the 28/9/1944 Molenhoek area , presumably Jabo units. In particular one that hit an aid station being used by the Medical unit of the 307th Engineers , 82nd Airborne. Sorry it's limited in details but it's all I have. Captain Herman Jacobius , 307 Airborne Engineer Battalion , Medical Attachment being the casualty I'm interested in. ( I have his details and photo ).

[John Manrho]

Time of raid would be helpful....

[noggin]

If I knew it , it would help

[John Manrho]

Educated guess.....Fw 190's of I./JG 11....if it was around 10.40 hrs....

[RSwank]

There is a description of the attack here:

https://www.familysearch.org/service...x=ArtCtxPublic


On page 181:

“181
SPIKE GETS HIS PURPLE HEART
The Luftwaffe was producing jet fighter planes and soon gave us the dubious honor of being among the first to be strafed and bombed by one. The plane came over our bivouac area several times and on one run it fired rockets and dropped several bombs in our area. It was chow time and the guys were bunched up.
I was talking to several guys, Pat Mulloy was one of them. The blast was so close it blew us over. Pat was very seriously wounded and is partially paralyzed as a result of it. They picked him up as I ran for the mess tent. Guys were lying around in weird positions -- it was a hell of a mess. One of our jeep drivers was dying. Sergeant Billiter, our mess Sgt. looked up at me with a pleading look. I wanted to reach down and grab his arm to keep him from slipping away. He died before we could move him.
Spike was hit in the back. One clean round hole showed as we carried him face down to the hospital tent. Doc Jacobius started to work on him while we went back for the others. The screaming noise of the diving jet sent us hitting the ground near the mess tent. more bombs, more yelling and cussing, flying tree limbs and sand.
In this last run he dropped one bomb right in the hospital tent. It killed Captain Jacobius and put 26 more pieces in Spike. He was in critical shape now.
That look in Sergeant Billiter's eyes kept coming back -- I didn't have much appetite for the meal Billiter's crew had prepared just before the raid. This one plane in two passes had torn up several companies of the Battalion.”


The above account was written by 1st Lt Robert W Tribe. 307th Airborne Eng Bn
http://www.airborneinnormandy.com/im...20Normandy.jpg

[John Manrho]

Again, without a time reference this is difficult to solve. If it happen in the evening of Sept 28th than Fw 190 of III./KG 51 might be a good candidate. Me 262 of I./KG 561 were also active that day, in total some 34 Me 262 took off in 18 different missions during the whole day.......

[noggin]

Thank RSwank for the detailed account of the raid. If it was as the diary entry says , with rocket and multiple bombs looks like it was a couple of Me262's John if that helps. Although saying that I'm no expert on the 262 so just a guess.

[Nick Beale]

You can find the Luftflotte 3 daily report here (in German): http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oo...17/491?r=0&s=3

I've attached the relevant paragraph on "own operations". I don't have any ULTRA that covers the day's operations by fighters, unfortunately.

The Luftflotte 3 report for the night of the 28/29th says that III./KG 51 sent 42 sorties (Fw 190) to Nijmegen and NSG 2 sent 12 (Ju 87). One Ju87 was lost.

[John Manrho]

Nick, interesting these II. Jagdkorps reports. Do we have them for the whole of 17.9-30.9. period?

Cheers,

John

[RSwank]

noggin,
I would agree it could well be a pair of jets rather than one doing multiple passes. As the attack came at "chow time" some very "rough" time estimates would be in ranges of 6:30 to 8:00 or 12:00 to 13:30 or 17:00 to 18:30. When Tribe used the phrase "I didn't have much appetite for the meal" that "might" suggest he was not referring to the 6:30 to 8:00 times, as that would more typically be referred to as "breakfast" rather than a "meal".