Luftwaffe losses and other questions

[Brian Meley]

Hello,

I am a first time poster to this site and completely foreign to the research of the Luftwaffe, so please forgive my ignorance. As a short introduction, I am the assistant historian for my grandfather’s WWII US Engineer outfit. I write the battalion newsletter for the veterans and spouses as well as research their activities prior to, during and after the war.

I am looking to determine which German Air Force units were in the vicinity of, or those who attacked US Seine River bridge sites in the vicinity of Mantes Gassicourt, France (identified on Google Earth as La Poste Gassicourt, Rue de Gassicourt, Mantes-la-Jolie, France) from the time period between August 19th, 1944 and August 24th, 1944.

In addition to knowing what units flew sorties against bridge sights in this area, I was hoping to determine the number of German planes shot down in that area during that time period. I have accounts from soldiers and from official US reports that range from three to over 200 German planes shot down. I did not want to trust any one of those sources before trying to figure out what the German records say.

Several of my guys also reported being strafed in this area by American planes that were believed to have been captured by the Germans. Would this information be mentioned in any of the German archives?

As a side note, my grandfather received a “perforated wound from a rocket launched by enemy aircraft” while on one of these bridges on August 23rd, 1944. He was evacuated and flown to England to recover from his wound. He recalled that particular aircraft as being a Messerschmitt ME-109. It would be interesting for me personally to confirm that the ME-109 was a possibility with the units involved in the attacks.

I appreciate any and all assistance.

Sincerely,
Brian Meley

[Nick Beale]

There was a thread about this several years ago, now archived. It doesn't answer all your questions but you'll find it here: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/archiv...p?t-26836.html

There's also this online if you read French: http://mantes.histoire.free.fr/items/fichiers/1208.pdf