Flying into unsustianable losses. Again and again.

Keep them coming Art.

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Subject: Flying into unsustianable losses. Again and again.
From: (Jim McCartan)
Date: 7/25/03 11:47 AM Pacific Daylight Time
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Keep them coming Art.

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I sure will. The truth will out.


Arthur Kramer
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...

Some target had to be hit no matter what the loses. The heavily defended
RR
Bridges were a case in point. Here are two of hundreds of examples where
in
spite of heavy losses these targets were hot over and over again without
let-up. The idea that the USAAC would not attack where losses could be
unsustainable was only propaganda for the nice folks at home worrying
about
their sons in battle. Unfortunately some "historians" bought the idea hook
line
and sinker contrubuting to distortion of the facts.

Two Bad Days Over the Deadly RR Bridges

Railroad bridges were brutally defended. Knock out a RR bridge and you
have cut
transport for possibly hundreds of miles . And while repairing track took
only
a few hours. rebulding a RR bridge over a river or chasm might take weeks.
We
had some of our heaviest losses over these bridges. On the 13th of
February
1945 we attacked the RR Bridge at Euskirchen. We lost two aircraft over
the
target. We lost Yeager and his crew and Williams (one chute seen to open)
and
his crew. The very next day we hit the Engers RR bridge and we lost 5
aircraft
over the target. Brennen,Holms, Jones, Nelson and Meppen and crews were
lost
but three chutes were seen you open. Two bridges,two days, seven crews
lost. A
lot of empty bunks at the 344th. And the war was almost over. What a time
to
die.

Death Over Paris

On preparation for D-Day the 344th was hitting bridges and rail lines
leading
to Omaha Beach. A critical target was the Paris RR bridge which allowed
vast
amounts of train traffic to move west toward Omaha. We hit the Paris RR
bridge
on the morning 28 May, 1944. The defenses were brutal and out of the 56
B-26's
that went out that day, 5 were were shot down over the target with a loss
of 31
aircrew.

We lost 4 from the 495th squadron including the crews of Seale, Woodrum,
Peterson and Shewel. The fifth loss was Reynolds crew of the 497th
squadron.

5 out of 56. No survivors. There were a lot of empty bunks that night. It
was a
bad day over Paris.


Unsustainable losses cannot be sustained.