09/29/44: Strafing German railroad

[TCO]

Dear friends,


I would appreciate, if you could help me identifying potential units (I assume USAAF), which conducted a series of low-level-attacks on German railroad-freight-cars on 09/29/1944 in the early afternoon here:

To give a rough orientation, this area is in the middle between Cologne and Frankfurt, appr. 50 miles south of the Ruhr-valley. Our region is called WESTERWALD, the mid-range mountains within the rivers RHINE (western border) - DILL (eastern border) - SIEG (northern border) and LAHN (southern border) . It is surrounded by cities like Coblence (Southwest) - Remagen (Northwest) - Wissen (North) - Herborn (East) and Limburg (Southeast).


To be more precise: The area, I focus on, was surrounded by three minor Luftwaffe-Airfields:
BREITSCHEID (USAAF-coordinates: G-3131; Geographical: 8°10'16.1'' East; 50°40'43.0'' North)
LIPPE (USAAF-coordinates:G-2424; Geographical: 8° 4'53.4'' East; 50°42'37.7'' North)
AILERTCHEN (Y81: USAAF-coordinates: ?; Geographical: 7°56'53.7'' East; 50°35'43.2'' North)


Thanks for your support!


TCO

[shooshoobaby]

TCO -
The 8th AF Fighter Groups did not fly Missions this Date.
My 9th AF Book shows the 416th BG A-20s Hit Marshalling
Yards at Bitburg - Morning , and Julich - Afternoon.
406th FG attacked Railroads near Landau.
Maybe it was the RAF?
Mike

[Hans Nauta]

Hi TCO,

I've checked the 2nd TAF Operational Log, but no references to attacks on rolling stock in the G quadrant.

Regards,
Hans

[TCO]

Mike, Hans

Thx for your help.

I checked out the 406th FG and found two remarks, which deal with rail-interdiction end of Sept '44, however the area is too far south from us.

"The end of September ...was devoted to isolation and interdiction of the area between the Saar and the Moselle. The marshaling yards at Saarburg, Zabern, Merzig, to name only a few the full weight of the Group's attack on many days. A program of constantly policing the rails for movement and limiting that movement by strategic cutting of the principal rail lines was undertaken by the command and successfully executed."

"As September drew to a close, Third Army reached the Moselle and
the Group began to work on the first interdiction campaign of Alsace-Lorraine, running many missions on the marshaling yards at Saarbruken, Zabern, Saarburg and many other key rail centers."

I am pretty sure that it were fighter-bombers of the 9. USAAF.
Any idea regarding other FG, which operated from France or Belgium at that time?

Regards,
TCO

[Horst Weber]

Originally Posted by TCO

Mike, Hans

Thx for your help.

I checked out the 406th FG and found two remarks, which deal with rail-interdiction end of Sept '44, however the area is too far south from us.

"The end of September ...was devoted to isolation and interdiction of the area between the Saar and the Moselle. The marshaling yards at Saarburg, Zabern, Merzig, to name only a few the full weight of the Group's attack on many days. A program of constantly policing the rails for movement and limiting that movement by strategic cutting of the principal rail lines was undertaken by the command and successfully executed."

"As September drew to a close, Third Army reached the Moselle and
the Group began to work on the first interdiction campaign of Alsace-Lorraine, running many missions on the marshaling yards at Saarbruken, Zabern, Saarburg and many other key rail centers."

I am pretty sure that it were fighter-bombers of the 9. USAAF.
Any idea regarding other FG, which operated from France or Belgium at that time?

Regards,
TCO

Good evening !

At this day, 9th AF fighters and fighter-bombers had more then 1500 combat sorties to targets in the Western ETO. My guess would be a FG/FS of IX Tactical Air Command (TAC) (70th, 71st and 84th Fighter Wing).

best wishes !

Horst Weber

[TCO]

Wow, 1500 sorties from 11 Fighter Groups on one day!

70 th Fighter Wing: 48th, 367th, 371th, 474th FG
71 th Fighter Wing: 366th, 368th, 370th FG
84 th Fighter Wing: 50th, 365th, 404th, 405th FG

Challenging! - that's like looking for a needle in a haystack!

Cheers!
TCO