TARGET: OIL INSTALLATION
NANTEUIL, FRANCE
7 AUGUST, 1944

Oil dumps and bridges over a wide area of France were the targets of twenty-nine combat wings of Eighth Air Force heavy bombers. All units of the 1st Division, except the 457th Group, attacked oil installations.

The Group, which comprised the 94th B Wing, flew eighth in the Division line, and its target was the 3-span railway bridge over the Marne River at Nanteuil, 40 miles east of Paris. This railway was a traffic artery between Paris and Strasbourg. Major Spencer was Air Commander and Captain Russell M. Selwyn was pilot.

The route for the three twelve-aircraft boxes of the Group crossed the French Coast at the eastern end of the Allied bridgehead, near Cabourg, turned southeastward and passed south of Paris, skirting the forest of Fontainebleau. The bomb run was made from the south.
There were clouds and some haze in the target area, but the target itself was clear. Approaching it, however, the lead bombardier was unable to synchronize properly and did not elect to drop. The low and high boxes, however, did drop. In order to permit the lead box to bomb, a 360 degree turn was made, and this time the lead box bombs were dropped, although smoke obscured the MPI and caused the selection of an alternate aiming point on the east approach rather than the bridge proper.

Turning left off the target, the Wing for a short time headed straight for Paris, then went south across the Fontainebleau forest, picked up the route in and followed it homeward.

From the standpoint of enemy opposition, the mission was largely uneventful. No enemy aircraft were seen, and the only flak encountered was light and inaccurate in western France in the area of the front lines of the ground war.