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Kelti, If memory serves me correctly, and that is subject to challenge, I have some TA missions in northern Italy. I also have some Italian fighter intercepts. There are some Italian intercepts in the new missions that I am making to use Achim's bases on Sardinia and Corsica, though those fighters came from northern Italy and southern France, not from the fields the bombers are hitting on the islands. As Rami knows, I like authenticity of missions as much as possible from the sim. The biggest problem I have run into with TA is the lack of accurate information. Many times, the TA accounts in the 2 books I have disagree with historic USAF documents. So, do I trust a bigotted USAAC from the '40s, or the memories of men in their age of 80s and 90s and subject to embellishments and memory loss? The accounts of the 99th, and 332nd before their famous days of US bomber escorts is limitted. Many times, I have to collaborate the historical data from USAF online chronology, with the accounts of the TA in the books by date. Many times when I do that, the USAF chronology is of just minimal information on a date, such as: "SAAF or NATAF A-20s bombed ports on Sardinia." In the books, the TA would say that they escorted SAAF Havocs on runs over ports in Sardinia and go into detail about enemy fighters sighted, engaged, downed, etc.. They would agree on dates, so I ran with the TA accounts. Fact is, the USAAC did not keep very good records of a fighter group of black pilots in 1943-45, until they painted their aircraft tails bright RED.
Ok, the records I have come from a book about the history of Fidenza published in 2003 and, in the chapter dedicated to my town involvment in WWII, it states that the records of the two 1944 bombardments of this area come from official USAAF documents. We all know WWII USAAF records were made public after 50 years.
Unfortunately, the translation in Italian lost some precision about the actual names of the air groups involved, that is Bomb Group, Wing and Bomb Squadron, even though the numbers should be correct. I'll try to re-convert them back as best as I can.
The first import raid was carried out by 4, probably B-17s, bombers which hit the electrical facility serving Fidenza railroad station on Tuesday, May 2nd 1944. Knowing that in WWII a bomb which hit within 300 metres from the target was considered on target, the consequences of that first raid were that the centre of town and the outskirts were hit by some bombs causing 36 civilian casualties. The 4 bombers followed an East-West attack path, probably following the main Milano-Bologna railway.
Fidenza was classified in Allied reports as a M/Y strategic target, meaning Marshalling Yard. Fidenza was not considered a primary target but it had a strategic importance with its cosiderable size freightyard for the time, still in existance today, and the junction of two important railroads, one that crosses the Appennini chain and reaches La Spezia via Fornovo, and one that goes to Cremona on the other side of the Po river, which can be an alternative route to Milano and the Northernmost parts of Italy.
The heaviest attack came on May 13th, 1944 and was carried out by B-24s of the 47th, 376th and 98th BG, based in San Pancrazio Salentino and San Vito dei Normanni airports in Puglia.
They took off at 10:50 am and followed a North, North-West flight path. They met with P-51 escorts over the Eastern coast of Corsica, I believe the Mustangs belonging to the 307th FS/31ST FG, because of a painting of the time picturing P-51s with diagonal red stripes over their tailplanes and the MX id.
The waypoint to enter the Po Valley was over Chiavari, on the Ligurian Sea, where shortly thereafter over the Appenninis, roughly above Ferriere, the formation split in two and 37 Liberators of the 512th, 514th and 515th Squadrons headed towards Fidenza. The remaining B-24s headed for the other designated targets of that day, the freightyard and rail bridge over the Po river in Piacenza.
The bomb run over Fidenza on May 13th followed a North, North-east path, started at 2:51 pm and the last bomber dropped at 2:54 pm. The town was hit diagonally by a total of 366 500lb bombs. The aiming point was the railroad station and the freightyard on the other side of it. All bombers returned and landed at their bases at 6:00 pm. The 7:40 pm debriefing report filed by Colonel Graff states that the main target was hit, but the town was hit also.The final casualty count for the day was 103, over a population of about 3,000, which could have been much higher if many people hadn't previously fled towards the surrounding farmland following the May 2nd attack.
Finally, from the military logbook of Fidenza native, pilot ace Luigi Gorrini, it appears that he intercepted, flying a MC.205 Veltro, the bombers on May 2nd, causing heavy damage to a B-17 and to three escorting P-38s. On May 13th he scrambled again, but he intercepted over Parma a formation of B-17s returning from a mission over Trento and Bolzano, so he was not involved with the B-24s bombing Fidenza.
From that day to Italy's liberation day of April 25th, 1945, Fidenza will be spot bombed again another 48 times and strafed 39 times, but nothing of the size of the May 13th attack. I still have vague memories, as a very, very young child, of my parents taking me for a walk in the outskirts of Fidenza and showing me bomb craters still unfilled.
I hope the above historical notes might be of some use to you for your mission writing.
......It would be my hope that we would have the right TA skins for whatever P-51B/C or D that our hobbiers would like to fly.
Is my/Jaxon's FDG2's P-51B/C Tuskegee patrol repaint pack still available here at SOH?
Cheers!
KH :ernae:
