Bombing of Giessen, 1944

[Nick Carraway]

Gents,

I am writing an article and have a wound badge for someone wounded in a bombing in Giessen, Germany. The certificate was awarded September 5, 1944. While I have found a lot of info on bombings in December I can not seem to be able to find anything matching the date of the certificate. Any info greatly appreciated!

Nick

[hucks216]

Although the citation might of been issued on 5th September there is usually a date for the actual wounding just under the recipients name and unit. I assume you mean the citation was issued on 5th December seing as you checked the bombings for that month.

[Nick Carraway]

Date of wounding is - 5 September 1944 with awarding 5 October 1944. Any info appreciated!

[reino]

Gents,

I am writing an article and have a wound badge for someone wounded in a bombing in Giessen, Germany. The certificate was awarded September 5, 1944. While I have found a lot of info on bombings in December I can not seem to be able to find anything matching the date of the certificate. Any info greatly appreciated!

Nick

Yes, Nick, I think it can be.

The official website from Giessen says – citation: „Mehr als 800 Menschen verloren bei insgesamt 28 Luftangriffen zwischen September 1944 und März 1945 ihr Leben …“ – „More then 800 people lost their live by bombing between September 1944 to March 1945…“ – see here:
http://www.giessen.de/index.phtml?ca...od=pres&ffsm=1
I don´t know the exactly day in September 1944 when the heavy bombing to the town of Giessen started, but you can ask by email in the city archive of Giessen:
http://www.giessen.de/Stadtarchiv/

And take another look here for an example what air activity happened on September 5th 1944 near Giessen - or maybe at the airfield there, too:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew....1944/09/05.htm
Citation: “67 P-38s and P-47s attack 3 airfields in the Hanau/Giessen, Germany area and claim 2-0-0 aircraft in the air and 66-0-28 on the ground; a P-38 and 3 P-47s are lost.”
Pilots from the 479th Fighter Group and the 56th Fighter Group attacked the airfields in Gelnhausen-Rothenbergen, Altenstadt and Ettingshausen on this day – maybe others more.
Note: The airfield in Ettingshausen was only a stone´s throw away from the Luftwaffe airfield Giessen-Wieseck ! And as I read in another thread, they had many 20mm Flak there.

In this book (pages 39-41) a former P-37 pilot from the 434th Fighter Squadron speak about their attack on September 5th 1944 against two German aircrafts on a grass field in the vicinity of Grossenlinden south of Giessen. I think, he means the small airfield (Giessen-)Lützellinden:
http://books.google.de/books?id=3JPq...0fs%22&f=false
An interesting report, as I think.

I hope it will help you a little bit.
Please, let me know if you publish your article, because I´m very interest about.
I live in the south part of this area the USAAF attacked on September 5th 1944 - Giessen is in the North.
… and excuse my worse English, please.

With kind regards from Germany
- Reino

[Nick Carraway]

Thanks, this is hugely helpful

[Nick Carraway]

Reino,

The person wounded worked at the NH des Heeres signals school if that helps with location. I did not think that was destroyed in the bombing but perhaps the person was elsewhere during an attack - we will never know. But the citation was even written for the award at the school itself.

Thanks!

[reino]

The person wounded worked at the NH des Heeres signals school if that helps with location. ...

Here you can find some information about this school:
http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=10138
Look there for “Heeresschule für Nachrichtenhelferinnen (HSNH), Gießen“

Following the coordinates for Google Earth to help you to locate the named places:
School for NH des Heeres: 50°34'29.78"N 8°42'32.63"E
Airfield Giessen-Wieseck: 050° 36.25' N 08° 43.72' E
Airfield Giessen-Lützellinden: 050° 32.67' N 08° 35.45' E
Airfield Ettingshausen: 050° 34.00' N 08° 52.18' E (definitive bombed on September 5th 1944)
If you want, copy these coordinates in the search-space from Google-Earth to locate the places.

Distance from School for NH des Heeres to the Airfield Giessen-Wieseck: 2.19 Miles
Distance from School for NH des Heeres to the Airfield Giessen-Lützellinden: 5.61 Miles
Distance from School for NH des Heeres to the Airfield Ettingshausen: 7.09 Miles
Distance from the Airfield Giessen-Wieseck to the Airfield Ettingshausen: 6.73 Miles

Additional, here in an older thread of this forum, you can see a picture of a dog tag from this school:
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=234576
Unfortunately, the link in post 2 didn´t work. I think the society (founded in 2001) is not longer existed. In the youngest past, their members collected so much information about this school and reams of these dog tags too. Sorry, I didn´t know someone of them by name…

- Reino

[Nick Carraway]

Reino - I really appreciate all of your help!

[Nick Carraway]

Reino - do you know why the school moved to Coburg in 1944?

[reino]

Reino - do you know why the school moved to Coburg in 1944?

No – sorry about.

But maybe you find a little help about in this thread and answers to other of your questions:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtop...23949&start=15
… also with some pictures

Regards
- Reino