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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.



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