Allied Bombing of Eindhoven Airport

[Neil T.]

I'm looking for information on the various occasions when the Allied air forces bombed the Eindhoven/Welschap airfield in The Netherlands while under German control.

I'm aware of the following operations:
Dec. 6, 1942 - Operation Oyster - the RAF bombing of the Philips industrial complex at Eindhoven
Feb. 22, 1944 - U.S. VIII Fighter Command conducts low level attack on Eindhoven airfield
June 14, 1944 - 63 B-24 Liberators bomb the airfield
July 5, 1944 - USAAF 487th Bomb Group bombs the airfield
Aug. 15, 1944 - RAF Halifax and Lancaster bombers bomb the airfield
Sept. 3, 1944 - RAF bombs the airfield again

Does anyone have more information on these and other operations against Eindhoven airfield by the Allies? I have lots on Operation Oyster but the remainder of my information is pretty sketchy.

[RSwank]

The Air Force Chronology for March 30, 1944 has:

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 285: In The Netherlands,
24 P-47 fighter-bombers escorted by 50 other P-47s dive-bomb Eindhoven and
Sosterburg, Airfields without loss; 22 other P-47s strafe Venlo, Deelen and
Twente/Enschede Airfields; they claim 1-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and
1-0-2 on the ground; 1 P-47 is lost and 3 damaged; 1 pilot is MIA.

[Neil T.]

Thanks for that additional mission - I hadn't found a reference to it previously.

[Leendert]

Neil,

Choose The Netherlands and then scolll down to Eindhoven Airfield on this website for further USAAF info:

https://www.8thafhs.org/new/targets.php

Also some leaflet drops, but most likely over city

Regards,

Leendert

[Dave Wallace]

I am showing the following attacks on this airfield although many of the early ones were single aircraft attacks. Number of aircraft is the right hand column
BC Eindhoven 08/04/1942 A/F Vis (N) 1
BC Eindhoven 26/04/1942 A/F Vis (N) 1
BC Eindhoven 06/05/1942 A/F Vis (N) 1
BC Eindhoven 08/06/1942 A/F Vis (N) 1
BC Eindhoven 06/08/1942 A/F Vis (N) 1
BC Eindhoven 03/02/1943 A/F Vis (N) 1
BC Eindhoven 26/02/1943 A/F 1
8 Eindhoven 14/06/1944 A/F Vis 63
8 Eindhoven 05/07/1944 A/F Vis 13
8 Eindhoven 09/08/1944 A/F Vis 12
BC Eindhoven 15/08/1944 A/F Vis 114
8 Eindhoven 18/08/1944 A/F Vis 12
8 Eindhoven 26/08/1944 A/F Vis 36
BC Eindhoven 03/09/1944 A/F Vis 103
8 Eindhoven 17/09/1944 A/F Vis 12

The Bomber Command target code for Eindhoven airfield was ZH 66.
The Bomber Command attack on Aug.15/44 had an H-Hour of 1200 hrs. The marking was done by 9 PFF Lancasters from 156 Squadron, led by Master Bomber S/L M.R. Attwatter & Deputy Master Bomber, F/L A.W.G. Cochrane. The main force was made up of 100 heavies from 4 Group. The Master Bomber's call sign was "COACHDOOR", the Deputy's was "COACHDOOR2, the main force call sign was "PINPOINT", abandon mission code was was "VINEGAR" The Master Bomber described it as a "successful attack, large mushroom of smoke and subsidence of runways. Slight H/Flak"

The attack on Sept.3rd was again using 9 Pathfinder Lancasters from 156 Squadron to do the marking. The Master Bomber was the newly promoted S/L A.W.G. Cochrane and Deputy Master Bomber was F/L K.P.C. Doyle. The main force was 50 heavies from 1 Group and 50 heavies from 3 Group. H-Hour was 1400 hrs. Master Bomber's call sign was "DRAWSTRING", the Deputy's was "DRAWSTRING2", the main force call sign was "PRESSON" and abandon mission was "ORANGEADE". Cochrane reported that "Bombing, at first was around the outer edge of the airfield, but later as the cloud cleared, bombing seemed good. One building on edge of wood was burning well. Slight H/F".
Cheers
Dave Wallace

[Neil T.]

Leendert and Dave - thanks for the extra information. Have either of you seen any post-bombing photos showing the bombing results?

[Laurent Rizzotti]

For 42-43, you can open the webpage https://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/apps/...irOps42-43.pdf and search Eindhoven, you will find more cases of Intruder missions to Eindhoven (with possible bombing noted).

Same document exist for 40-41 (https://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/apps/...irOps40-41.pdf) and also has several attacks on Eindhoven by Intruders.

[Neil T.]

Laurent - thanks for the info. I did not realize how many single aircraft missions were flown against Eindhoven. Do you know the source documents used to build the databases you referenced?

[Chris Going]

Covers of Eindhoven:

Eindhoven was repeatedly photographed during the period 1941-end 1944.
Twenty years ago I mapped UXO here using original reconnaissance imagery so I should know. Some dates and Sortie numbers (in brackets) are below. Where I can find details such as times, photo-scales, and exposures I have added them.

2 October 1941 (T732);
9 October 1942 (C475);
5th April 1943 (D366);
19 April 1944 (7/BB66);
31 May 1944 (106G/623);
20 June 1944 (7/1994);
28 June 1944 (106G/1144);
6 July 1944 (7/2205) 1/9000
2 August 1944 (106G/1818);
15 August 1944 (106G/2283); 1630; 1/8200; 3/4057-60; 3075-80
15 Aug 1944 (106G/2286); 1815; 1/8200; 3/4124-31
29 Aug 1944 (7/3134);
5 Sep 1944 (7/3163); 1230B
7 Sep 1944 (106G/2654); 1030B 1:5000
10 Sep 1944 (106G/2741); 0930B 1:12,100
11 Sep 1944 (106G/2786); 3122-25
5 Jan 1945 (Unknown)
4 Apr 1945 (16/1986).

Imagery from many of these sorties are preserved in NCAP or NARA (as prints, copy negs, or original negatives) and the air photographs distributed with the ‘K’ reports in the UK National Archives at Kew will be found for the most part in AIR 34.

Good hunting.

ChrisG

[Neil T.]

Laurent and Chris - thank you for the excellent additional information. I had no idea there were so many Intruder ops over Eindhoven, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.