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This was the Group's second mission for the day. We don't know if they were assigned to the day's second or third mission since Caen was targeted in both. The objective of the Mighty 8th second mission was to nail shut some transportation choke points in order to prevent the Germans from reinforcing their Normandy defenses. The other mission was a small B-24 force to hit the communications center at Caen. In either case, the 492nd was assigned to bomb a target in Caen. They took off at 0620.
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The mission only called for 12 of the 492nd's heavy bombers. Major Turnbull led this mission flying with the Harris Crew 707. Of the dozen crews going, two of them had already flown on the earlier mission.
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The Group had plenty of escort fighters as every fighter was put into the air.
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Just like the day's first mission there was no resistance of any kind.
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The clouds over the target made it impossible to bomb and there were too many civilians in the area to risk a mistake. The decision was made to abandon the mission and go home.
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If the Group was flying in the 8th's second mission, all of the groups had to abandon because of the clouds. If they were participating in the day's third mission, only 58 of the 73 bombers were able to drop leaving 15 unable to see the target.
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Because the mission had gone into enemy territory it was a credited mission.
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The Group wished that they could have been more effective. Afterall, this was D-Day. But they found comfort in knowing that they didn't kill any civilians or hit their own troops. Besides, there would be many more missions to Normandy.
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