On May 22 1944 Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo!

Today in WWII History on May 22, 1944. Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo, The US and British plan involved a systematic
Allied air bombing of railroads on trains in France, Germany and Northern Europe. The plan was a success which forced Germany
to scramble for slave laborers, to repair the widespread damage inflected on its railway network.

"To supplement the transportation plan, Leigh-Mallory authorized wide-scale fighter sweeps against moving trains on
20 May, when civilian passenger traffic was believed to have ceased.74 For some time fighters had been shooting up trains,
to the nervousness of USSTAF headquarters, where it was feared that civilians were being killed indiscriminately. 75 Now
the practice would be carried on openly and on a large scale. In the next two weeks fighters damaged about 475 locomotives
and cut railway lines at 150 different points. The most sensational attacks were the CHATTANOOGA CHOO-CHOO missions,
the first of which took place on 21 May when 763 AEAF fighters swept over the northern half of France and 500 Eighth Air Force
fighters ranged over Germany firing and bombing at trains.76 Another occurred on 25 May when three Ninth Air Force fighter
groups operated over the Rhineland and northern France and more than 600 Eighth Air Force fighters shot up trains in Belgium
and France. Other outstanding CHATTANOOGA missions were carried out by 571 Eighth Air Force fighters in eastern Germany
and Poland on 29 May and by the Ninth Air Force in France on 2, 3, and 4 June.77 These operations furnished good practice for
fighter pilots in attacking ground targets, a skill they were to develop to a high degree after the invasion, and they brought about
enormous disruption to enemy traffic and ruin to equipment while producing important psychological effects on railroad personnel.
French train crews deserted in large numbers, especially after fighters began to drop belly tanks on stalled trains and to set them afire
by strafing. This situation caused the Germans to employ crews of their own nationality on the more hazardous runs, and after 26 May
railway operations in daylight were sharply reduced even in cases where the lines were unbroken.78"

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/...II-6.html#cn76


[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XQybKMXL-k[/YOUTUBE]

 

Fwd from: http://www.marche.be/
Hi, Mr. Wilson!

We are still looking for an american outfit which straffed a train in Belgium on 21st May 1944.

This attack was made by two P47 (breaking off from a fair number of circling planes) on the railroad station of Marloie, in southern Belgium (halfway on the line between Namur and Arlon).
On this rail stations were stationed two cargo trains, one with 140.00 liter of gasoline, and the other was an ammunition train. (Naval mines from Antwerp being stowed far from the sea...)

At 11:25, The first fighter shot a short burst (machine guns, no bombs) , and up went the ammunition train (the nearby village was raised, with lot of casualties)
It i s said that one of the fighter was hit by the schrappnels, and eventually crashed half an hour later close to the city of Charleroi.

Is it possible to find if such a crash really arised, what was the cause (mechanical, flak, fighter, not mentioned,)
what were the wherabouts of the pilots, what were the orders for this day?

I was not able to find an aerial recce picture of this station, either before or after the raid.

What can I do to learn what really happened?
How about finding this day’ casualties?

Thanks in advance for any hint in this puzzle;
Hubert BARNICH
______________

I replied with what little I know:
Some limited info at USAAF Chronology
http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii/usaf/html/May.44.html

I'm not finding any MACR reports for any of the 26 lost pilots lost - at least at http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1944_1.html

 

From: https://www.facebook.com/sonsanddaughtersofww2veterans/posts/418882788146176

Excerpt from Fogg in the Cockpit regarding Operation Chattangooga and the 359th Fighter Group:

“Re-equipped in shining silver P-51s, the 359th Fighter Group fought a savage battle of attrition against the Luftwaffe in May 1944. These were the long grim weeks of air assault on the German designed to prod and lance and ferret out his invasion air defenses and hack them apart before the Battle of the Beaches began.

"It was magnificent and it was war, but it was costly to the young pilots flying 500 miles into combat: more costly than most of them realized in the day-to-day excitement of new missions, new objectives, new tactics, and new records…

"Came the Chattanooga in the area around Lubeck, northeast of Hamburg. The whole command did a staggering job, destroying or damaging 225 locomotives, a paragraph full of other ground objectives and getting 20-0-2 aircraft in the air and 102-0-76 aircraft on the ground for the expenditure of 26 pilots. The 359th lost four…

"In exchange for these four men, the 359th exacted from the Germans a ground score of 17-0-24, plus two caught in the air, and, in the attack on the railroads, 31 locomotives, six radar towers, five signal towers, a transformer station and assorted other targets.”

 

Operation Chattangooga Gun Camera Footage http://datab.us/03qGY8g-jGg

 

May just have found it.
http://www.fieldsofhonor-database.com/index.php/american-war-cemetery-margraten-d/43945-deabler-richard-t
http://genealogie.marche.be/kg/devmem/annex.htm

Major Richard T. Deabler [SIZE=10pt]Squadron Leader, Commander 53rd Fighter Squadron 36th Fighter Group[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Type: P47D-22RE Serial number: 42-25886[/SIZE]MACR: 5011
[SIZE=10pt]At Biesme, 15 km.South-east Charleroi between the villages of Sart Eustache and Sougnies, Belgium[/SIZE]

[SIZE=x-small]Statement from 1 Lt. Jack W Crow.

"Major Deabler and I shot up freight train evidently containing munitions. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]The resulting explosion caused a solid sheet of flame to shoot up into the air to an altitude of 3000 ft., covering a base area of a mile in diameter. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]The flame was so sudden that Major Deabler and I had to fly through the flame at an altitude of approximately 800 feet. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]I noticed Major Deabler's ship was burning. I talked with Major Deabler and he stated it looked as though he would have to bail out and I advised the Major to bail out quickly. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]I saw Major Deabler's arm go up to open the canopy and just at that time the ship fell into a spin and crashed. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]I did not see Major Deabler leave the ship and I circled Major Deabler's plane, following the crash four or five times and saw nothing of Major Deabler"

The book "36th Fighter Group Prepared to Prevail" contains another story.

" On another squadron mission a marshalling yard was attacked in the Metz region. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]Before all the squadron had dropped their bombs, a train exploded with a tremendous blast that destroyed just about everything in the yard. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]The blast was so strong, the vacuum it produced caused a number of the Thunderbolts over the target to experience stalled engines. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]All were able to restart their engines in flight except the squadron leader,R.T.Deabler who went in with his plane and was killed. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]The other pilots who were along on the mission felt that he spent too much time trying to restart his engine before bailing out, a judgement call that [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]didn't work out. In other interviews for this manuscript with pilots who were on the mission, all mention the tremendous magnitude of the explosion. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=x-small]Intelligence later determined that the train was loaded with rocket fuel, thus the extraordinary blast."[/SIZE]

 

From: http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90377

"To supplement the transportation plan, Leigh-Mallory authorized wide-scale fighter sweeps against moving trains on 20 May, when civilian passenger traffic was believed to have ceased. For some time fighters had been shooting up trains, to the nervousness of USSTAF headquarters, where it was feared that civilians were being killed indiscriminately.

Now the practice would be carried on openly and on a large scale.
In the next two weeks fighters damaged about 475 locomotives and cut railway lines at 150 different points.

The most sensational attacks were the CHATTANOOGA CHOO-CHOO missions, the first of which took place on 21 May when
763 AEAF fighters swept over the northern half of France and
500 Eighth Air Force fighters ranged over Germany firing and bombing at trains.

Another occurred on 25 May when three Ninth Air Force fighter groups operated over the Rhineland and northern France
and more than 600 Eighth Air Force fighters shot up trains in Belgium and France.

Other outstanding CHATTANOOGA missions were carried out by 571 Eighth Air Force fighters in eastern Germany and Poland on 29 May and by the Ninth Air Force in France on 2, 3, and 4 June.

These operations furnished good practice for fighter pilots in attacking ground targets, a skill they were to develop to a high degree after the invasion, and they brought about enormous disruption to enemy traffic and ruin to equipment while producing important psychological effects on railroad personnel.
French train crews deserted in large numbers, especially after fighters began to drop belly tanks on stalled trains and to set them afire by strafing.

This situation caused the Germans to employ crews of their own nationality on the more hazardous runs, and after 26 May railway operations in daylight were sharply reduced even in cases where the lines were unbroken."
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/...II-6.html#cn76