Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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The Pathfinder Miscalculates By 20 Kilometers...
On February 22, 1944, all hell breaks out in the Dutch city of Nijmegen!
Without any warning, a large formation of bombers from the US 8th Air Force opened the bomb doors over the unsuspecting city and dumped their deadly cargo over Nijmegen!
The historic city center of Nijmegen is badly damaged - over 800 Dutch people are killed!
The US formation of 177 B-24 "Liberator" bombers had to abort a planned attack on the Messerschmitt works at Gotha (Thuringia, East Germany) due to bad weather conditions and was on the return flight to Great Britain.
A previously assigned secondary target was to be attacked - the German city of Kleve!
Otherwise the bombers would have had to throw their cargo into the North Sea, because landing on the home bases with full bomb bays was considered far too dangerous and was strictly forbidden!
But the navigator of what the Americans call the "Pathfinder" made a miscalculation and confused the German city with Nijmegen, about 20 kilometers away.
The "Pathfinder" was a single-flying machine that flew ahead of the actual bomber formation and by dropping luminous markings, the so-called "Christmas trees", marked the following aircraft crews their destination...:
The British used "Mosquito" aircraft for this...
...the US-Americans P-38 "Lightnings"...
...which had been specially converted into "Pathfinders" with a glass nose...
... or dragged along the so-called "master bomber" in a special gondola under the wing..:
Kleve was spared on February 22, 1944...
The Germans - still the undisputed occupying power in the country - exploit the event as best they can! The press reported extensively...:
and Dr. "Siegesmund" Goebbels and his propaganda reacted immediately to the accident - and produced masses of this poster...:
In Nijmegen there are many memorials today to commemorate that ominous February 22nd...
...one of them specifically to the children who died when their school was hit...:
Many of the dead are buried here - in the two rows visible in the picture only victims of the fatal error of February 22, 1944...:
On February 22, 1944, all hell breaks out in the Dutch city of Nijmegen!
Without any warning, a large formation of bombers from the US 8th Air Force opened the bomb doors over the unsuspecting city and dumped their deadly cargo over Nijmegen!
The historic city center of Nijmegen is badly damaged - over 800 Dutch people are killed!
The US formation of 177 B-24 "Liberator" bombers had to abort a planned attack on the Messerschmitt works at Gotha (Thuringia, East Germany) due to bad weather conditions and was on the return flight to Great Britain.
A previously assigned secondary target was to be attacked - the German city of Kleve!
Otherwise the bombers would have had to throw their cargo into the North Sea, because landing on the home bases with full bomb bays was considered far too dangerous and was strictly forbidden!
But the navigator of what the Americans call the "Pathfinder" made a miscalculation and confused the German city with Nijmegen, about 20 kilometers away.
The "Pathfinder" was a single-flying machine that flew ahead of the actual bomber formation and by dropping luminous markings, the so-called "Christmas trees", marked the following aircraft crews their destination...:
The British used "Mosquito" aircraft for this...
...the US-Americans P-38 "Lightnings"...
...which had been specially converted into "Pathfinders" with a glass nose...
... or dragged along the so-called "master bomber" in a special gondola under the wing..:
Kleve was spared on February 22, 1944...
The Germans - still the undisputed occupying power in the country - exploit the event as best they can! The press reported extensively...:
and Dr. "Siegesmund" Goebbels and his propaganda reacted immediately to the accident - and produced masses of this poster...:
In Nijmegen there are many memorials today to commemorate that ominous February 22nd...
...one of them specifically to the children who died when their school was hit...:
Many of the dead are buried here - in the two rows visible in the picture only victims of the fatal error of February 22, 1944...:
