The Kassel Mission on 27 September 1944 was also known as the ''air battle over the

Seulingswald The Seulingswald (also called the Sillingswald) is a hill range in the German Central Uplands which reaches heights of up to . It is part of the Fulda-Werra Uplands in the East Hesse Highlands within the Hessian county of Hersfeld-Rotenburg; ...

''. The mission aimed to destroy the factories in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

of the engineering works of

Henschel & Sohn Henschel & Son () was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicles and weapons. Georg Ch ...

which built tracked armoured vehicles (the "Tiger" and "Panther" tanks) and their associated infrastructure. ''See

bombing of Kassel in World War II The Kassel World War II bombings were a set of Allies of World War II, Allied Strategic bombing during World War II, strategic bombing attacks which took place from February 1942 to March 1945. In a single deadliest raid on 22–23 October 1943, ...

.''

Main battle

For this mission the

8th Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces S ...

dispatched 283

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models desi ...

bombers of the

2nd Combat Bombardment Wing The Second Bombardment Wing, abbreviated as 2nd Bombardment Wing of the United States Army Air Forces is a disbanded unit whose last assignment was with the Continental Air Forces, based at McChord Field, Washington. It was last active in Novemb ...

and, as escorts, 198

P-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter aircraft, fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by a team headed ...

fighters. As the result of a navigation error, the lead ship of the 445th Bombardment Group turned almost due east instead of east-southeast and its 35 bombers bypassed Kassel, deciding instead to bomb the railway facilities in the town of Göttingen.''Overview of the Kassel Mission''
at www.kasselmission.org. Retrieved 17 Sept 2019. The bombs, however, missed the

marshalling yard A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...

and the repair shop. Instead, 25 buildings in the village of Rosdorf, on the southwest edge of Göttingen, were damaged and three people injured. The villagers there counted a total of 103 bomb craters. As a result of the change of course, the bombers became separated from their fighter escort on the return flight. Around 11:00 am they turned west over the

forest between

Bad Hersfeld The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld (''Bad'' is "spa" in German; the Old High German name of the city was ''Herolfisfeld'') is the district seat of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km southeast ...

and

Eisenach Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...

and were almost immediately attacked by 150 fighters of the German

Jagdgeschwader Jagdgeschwader were the series of fighter wings of initially, the German Empire's ''Luftstreitkräfte'' air arm of the ''Deutsches Heer'', then the successor fighter wings of the Third Reich's original ''Luftwaffe'' air arm of its combined Wehrmach ...

(

fighter wing In military aviation, a wing is a unit of command. In most military aviation services, a wing is a relatively large formation of planes. In Commonwealth countries a wing usually comprises three squadrons, with several wings forming a group (aro ...

s) 3 (Udet), 4 and 300. These wings were equipped with

Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the Bf 109 formed the backbone of the ...

and Fw 190 fighters which had been modified with extra armour and 20 and 30 mm cannon for attacking bomber formations. The air battle only lasted for a few minutes "but it was a horrendous attack;" 25 bombers were shot down across an area 15 miles (24 km) across and went down over the Seulingswald.''Mission Map''
at www.kasselmission.org. Retrieved 17 Sept 2019. The total destruction of the formation was avoided by the late arrival of the 361st Fighter Group. In addition, six additional bombers crashed on the return flight to their home base at Tibenham,

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

; only four bombers made it home unscathed. This was the greatest single-mission loss of aircraft from any American bombardment group during World War II. American losses were 31 B-24 Liberator bombers and one P-51 Mustang shot down. 118 Americans were killed, of whom 11 were murdered after parachuting to safety. 121 Americans ended up in German

POW camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, an ...

s and survived. German losses came to 29 fighters shot down, with 18 pilots killed. In addition, seven people died when a German fighter crashed on a German medical base This air battle was one of the largest late-war confrontations between the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

(USAAF) and the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

, the latter of which was barely still active at this time.

Follow-up operations

In the days after the battle, USAAF aircraft dropped leaflets over the suspected landing zones to try and protect crews that had parachuted to safety from being

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...

. Near the town limits of Bad Hersfeld

carpet bombing Carpet bombing, also known as saturation bombing, is a large area bombardment done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase evokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in t ...

was carried out to create fear of the American air force.

Memorial site

On 1 August 1990, an airmen's memorial was unveiled at the crash site of the lead ship of the US bomber group in the Seulingswald near Ludwigsau- Friedlos to commemorate the fallen and as a gesture of reconciliation.

References

External links

Website of the Kassel Mission Historical Society
(English)
Media report on the 65th anniversary
(German)
TV interview of a veteran
{{coord missing, Germany World War II operations and battles of Europe Aerial operations and battles of World War II World War II strategic bombing of Germany Conflicts in 1944 East Hesse