Target: Road Junction at St. Martin du Besaces, France
Time Of Take-Off: 07:37 / Time Over Target: 08:59 / Time Landed: 10:20
36 B-26 aircraft were dispatched to attack an enemy Road Junction at St. Martin du Besaces, France. 2 flights were loaded with 8x500LB General Purpose bombs and 4 flights 16x250LB General Purpose bombs, with bombing to be done by flights of 6 aircraft at 8,000 feet or below the cloud layer. Allied aircraft will furnish area cover.
Weather conditions were 6/10 to 8/10 medium clouds over England, nil clouds over the Channel and over the target area with 10 to 15 miles visibility.
No photo coverage was available for the 1st flight of the 1st box, but crews reported results as excellent. The bombs of the 2nd flight fell in open fields about 3 miles from the aiming point. The bombs of the 3rd flight fell in a tight concentration about 740 feet of the aiming point, with hits across one main and one minor road but mostly in open fields. Results for the 2nd and 3rd flights were rated as GROSS and FAIR respectively.
The bombs of the 1st flight of the 2nd box fell in an excellent concentration across a main road intersection northeast of the aiming point, and small buildings and open fields about 500 feet from the aiming point. The bombs of the 2nd flight fell in a good concentration about 200 feet northwest of aiming point and walked northwest of aiming point hitting a main road, 7 small buildings and open fields. The bombs of the 3rd flight fell in a tight concentration across a main road next to the aiming point with hits on one large and 3 or 4 small buildings, the rest falling in open fields. Results were rated as GOOD, FAIR, and GOOD by the group's photographic interpreters.
Heavy, Moderate, Accurate FLAK was encountered over the target area; also Heavy, Weak, Inaccurate FLAK at Caen and Tille, and Heavy, Moderate, Inaccurate FLAK at Falaise. 5 aircraft suffered battle damage, including Schreiber (a/c 739) whose right wing was badly hit by FLAK and caused him to briefly fall out of formation. His Flight Engineer, Sgt. Franklin J. Randall, also received slight wounds to his face.
One crew reported that there were only about 6 bursts of flak but that they were "Accurate as hell". Many crews reported extensive FLAK damage and felt that more evasive action was needed when passing near known enemy FLAK gun positions. Two B-26s (presumably from another group) were sighted returning to England: one plane was silver, one dark.