The Mighty Eighth Air Force
 plane
30 July 1944
SUNDAY, 30 JULY 1944

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): HQ issues an order regularizing
under the VIII Air Force Composite Command certain special and provisional
units carrying out special tactical activities; this is a result of
suggestion made on 2 Mar by Lieutenant General James H Doolittle, Commanding
General Eighth Air Force, that units engaged in CARPETBAGGER, H2X (blind-
bombing), night leaflet, and weather missions be put under centralized
control.
Mission 505: 237 P-47s and P-51s fly sweeps of Evreux, St Quentin, Paris
and Orleans, France claiming 3-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 9-0-0 on
the ground; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot is MIA) and 3 P-47s and 2 P-51s are
damaged.
Mission 506: 1 B-17 is dispatched on a night leaflet mission but is
recalled.
31 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions.

TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In France, 450+ A-20s and B-26s bomb
defenses in the Chaumont area in support of the US First Army; fighters fly
escort, cover the assault area and armored columns, and carry out armed
reconnaissance in the Orleans-Paris area; 200+ C-47s fly supply and
evacuation missions to the Continent; and the 410th, 411th and 412th Fighter
Squadrons, 373d Fighter Group, arrive at Tour-en-Bassin from Woodchurch,
England with P-47s.