VIII Bomber Command 8
29 August 1942Official Description
12 B-17’s attack Courtrai/Wevelghem A/F, an FW-190 base.
Description
97BG despatches 13 B-17s to attack German airfields at Courtrai, France.
Mission Details
COURTRAI (Primary)
Description: AIRFIELD
Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
Notes: No fighter escort. The RAF has been bombing targets in Germany and other Occupied countries since 11 -May-40, but only at night. The daylight raids of the American 8th Air Force seem to have taken the Germans off guard, so resistance has been light. Also the number of bombers sent by 8th Air Force to the target have been much smaller in number than those currently being despatched to target by the RAF.
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Mission Statistics
- Tonnage Dropped: 28.15
- Enemy aircrafts probably destroyed by bomber: 1
- Enemy aircraft damaged by bomber: 1
- Aircraft sent: 13
- Aircraft effective: 11
- Aircraft damaged: 3
STEENE (Opportunistic)
Description: AIRFIELD
Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
Notes: A single aircraft drops its bombs on the German airfield Steene at COURTRAI, France as a target of opportunity.
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Mission Statistics
- Tonnage Dropped: 1.00
- Aircraft sent: 1
- Aircraft effective: 1
Revisions
Lee Cunningham 15-Feb-2015. Added Bomber Gunner claims to statistics on Courtrai per "The Mighty Eighth War Diary" Roger A. Freeman.
Moved Mission pin & changed title from STEENE/COURTRAI (Opportunistic) to STENE (Opportunistic).
Steene in France is a small town- modern satellite images on Google Maps do not suggest that there was an airfield nearby. There was a German airfield at Stene in Belgium, close to the current location of Ostend Airport, which falls on a more direct route from Courtrai to Polebrook/Grafton Underwood.
Lee Cunningham 26-Oct-2014. Mission description based on "USAAF Combat Chronology" Hack McKillop, http://www.usaaf.net/chron/42/aug42.htm
Lee Cunningham, 8th Air Force missions research database / Stan Bishop's 'Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces', the Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces and the work of Roger Freeman including the 'Mighty Eighth War Diary'.