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The 8th Air Force put all of its forces on Germany. The 14th Wing drew an industrial target at Russelheim. The 492nd dispatched 33 planes under the command of Captain Byrne, the 857th Squadron Operation Officer. He flew with the Mock Crew 804, now flying for the 856th. Two of the planes had to abort due to mechanical failures.
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We haven't been able to find out how many fighters were assigned to escort the 14th Wing. Since they didn't run into the Luftwaffe, we'll assume their fighter protection was more than adequate.
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Flak was said to be moderate and accurate. The 14th Wing took some damage, but didn't lose any of their airplanes.
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Clouds prevented the Wing from seeing their primary target at Russelheim. The Wing then moved northeast to the port town of Koblenz on the Rhine River. There the Group got a good shot at a marshalling yard and some targets of opportunity. One of the planes was not able to drop due to a mechanical failure. We don't know if that was from flak damage.
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This wasn't the easiest mission, but it was far from being a bad one. The Group deserved some good luck, especially since they had got all of the bad luck on yesterday's "milk run."
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To give an idea of the kind of luck the Group has had, of the 33 ships dispatched, 24 of them were replacement crews. None of them were up there flying their first mission, either. So far the Group had 41 replacement crews with at least one mission flown. More new crews had already arrived and were receiving in-house training. The Group had been flying combat for only 69 days.
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| Mission Data |
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53
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Date:
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19 Jul 44
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Koblenz, Germany
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Marshalling
yards
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Aircraft
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Bomb Load
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Tons:
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82
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Type:
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100 lb GPs
500 lb GPs
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Result:
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Good
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Enemy Action
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Flak:
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Moderate
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GAF:
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None
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Counter Action
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Kills:
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0
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492 Casualties
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KIA:
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WIA:
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POW:
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INT:
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