X-Nico

4 unusual facts about RAF Knettishall


RAF Knettishall

The 388th received another DUC for three outstanding missions: an attack against a tire and rubber factory in Hanover on 26 July 1943; the bombardment of a synthetic oil refinery in Brux on 12 May 1944; and a strike against a synthetic oil refinery at Ruhland on 21 June 1944, during a shuttle raid from England to the Soviet Union.

•

The group staff knew that nearby Thetford was the birthplace of Thomas Paine and decided to name the newly arrived aircraft "Tom Paine" in his honour.

•

Covered the airborne assault on Holland in September 1944 by attacking military installations and airfields at Arnheim.

•

The unit attacked many other significant targets, including aircraft factories in Kassel, Reims, and Brunswick; airfields in Bordeaux, Paris, and Berlin; naval works at La Pallice, Emden, and Kiel; chemical industries in Ludwigshafen; ball-bearing plants in Schweinfurt; and marshalling yards in Brussels, Osnabrück, and Bielefeld.



see also