Air raid on Le Noirmont
| date | October 29, 1944 |
|---|---|
| place | Le Noirmont |
| output | Destruction of a steam locomotive and two buildings |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Troop strength | |
| Two Republic P-47 "Thunderbolt" | Dragoon Squad 24 |
| losses | |
|
- |
Two injured |
During the air raid on Le Noirmont on October 29, 1944, two American P-47 fighter-bombers flew an attack on the station district of Le Noirmont in neutral Switzerland. They destroyed a steam locomotive and two farmhouses and injured two people. The reason for the attack is unknown.
background
Switzerland was neutral in World War II. Nevertheless, during the intensive aerial combat over Central Europe there were repeated border violations and bombing of Swiss targets , initially by the German and towards the end of the war mainly by the Allied air force.
In October 1944, the US Air Force operated a field airfield in Maîche , France , about 13 km west of Le Noirmont in Switzerland, from which it flew deployments to the northeast with P-47 fighter-bombers against the German troops heading in the direction of the Swiss border withdrawn. In order to reduce the risk of accidental attacks, the roofs of the Swiss houses near the border, including in Le Noirmont, were marked with large Swiss crosses.
attack
On Sunday, October 29, 1944, Swiss observation posts reported that seven or eight P-47s had flown over the Swiss border near Sommêtres and had split up into two double patrols . Two of these planes attacked Le Noirmont from the northeast at around 9:30 a.m.
The first fighter-bomber flew over the southern edge of the village in a straight line and shot at a narrow-gauge steam locomotive that was just entering the station and was supposed to pick up a freight car parked in the station. The 12.7 mm machine gun bullets riddled the locomotive, which hit the freight car, but did not injure the three crew members. The second plane also flew over the station from the northeast and dropped three incendiary bombs , which hit two farmhouses next to the station. It also shot at the rolling stock in front of the station, seriously injuring the feet and legs of the station director and his apprentice, who had sought protection under the wagons.
The Dragoon Squadron 24 of the Swiss Army stationed in Le Noirmont supported the village population with fire-fighting and rescue work. The squadron's entire stock of ammunition was stored in one of the burning houses, and except for 100 rounds (which ultimately exploded) could be recovered in time. The two houses hit burned to the ground. No one was harmed because at the time of the attack, almost the entire population was in the church during the service.
consequences
The reason for the attack and the identity and mission of the attackers could never be clearly established. The population of Le Noirmont assumed it was a warning from the Allies about the ammunition business of the Dixi company in nearby Le Locle , against whose deliveries to Germany the USA had protested several times to the Swiss government. Jacques Maurer suspects that the pilots as part of Operation Rhubarb were given orders to fight enemy targets as they saw fit.
As a result of the attack, the Swiss Army tried to make greater use of its scant air defenses, and the Army staff ordered that all troops should open fire on foreign planes. A few years after the war, the US government made good the property damage worth around 460,000 francs.
swell
- Hans-Rudolf Schmid: The air raid on Le Noirmont from 1944. In: Schweizer Soldat 6/2012, p. 38 ff.
- Bulletin de la Societé Jurassienne des Officiers, N ° 25 Février 2009 (PDF; 1.7 MB), p. 95 f.
- Jacques Maurer: La guerre a aussi frappé chez nous. Dommages collatéraux. Le Noirmont, Jacques Maurer, 2008.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Maurer (2008), according to. the review in Bulletin de la Societé Jurassienne des Officiers 2/2009
- ↑ a b Schmid (2012)
- ^ According to Oerlikon-Bührle, Dixi was in Swiss francs according to an EVD - List of export permits of war material to Germany, 1940-44 for these arms exports in second place all Swiss armaments companies. From a special supplement in the Solothurner Zeitung on World War II, December 16, 1997