Evening star., 1944-07-14
Budapest Rail Yards
And Hungarian Oil
Refineries Bombed
~ the Associated Press.

~ the Associated Press.
LONDON. July l4.-Up to 50l
escorted American heavy bomber
attacked Budapest railway yards ane
four oil retineries in Hungary toda,
In continued determined efforts K
destroy German fuel supplies ans
communications,
Foul weather .nampered operation
In support of the battle In Nor.
mandy. although some flights cul
through clouds and squalls ans
bombed railroad, yards at Beauvail
and Montdider, far east OF the battll
fields. *
Three of the Hungarian refinerie,
were on the. outskirts of Budapest
and these were the meat for Flyins
Fortresses based on the more sunny
fields Of italy. They weer the Fanto
Shell Koolax and Hungary Petro.
leum Co. properties with a total an.
nual capacity Of $4,000 tons. Libera-
tors sought out the Petfurdo oil
works S miles south of the Hun
garian capital and also bombed the
Ferencuaros Railway yards in the
city.
A considerable number of aggres-
sive Nazi fighters were encountered
and several were destroyed by the
four-engined bombers and their
Lightning escort. Mustang fighter.
met interceptors over Budapest and
bagged an unspecified number.
Italian Rail Yards Bombed.
Another flight OF Liberators and
Mustangs bombed the Mantua rail-
yards In Italy. Overnight, Mediter-
ranean air forces snarled Milan rail-
yards and bombed numerous oil
storage facilities in Northern Italy
particularly At Trieste and Porto
Marghera.
Thunderbolt 1ighter-bombers at.
tackled the French railyards, crowd.
ed with freight trains supplying
German divisions locked in battle
IN Normandy. A solid wall Of flax
dispersed the formation over Beau
vais, but the flight reformed and
made second run over the target
all planes returned.
Mustangs and Thunderbolts de.
stroyed five German planes in scat.
tered combats during the morning
without loss. In sweeps over
France, they strafed trucks and shot
up flak towers. Seven United State,
9Th Air Force fighters, based ir
France. were lost yesterday in op.
erations against bridges, airfields
and other objectives, 1t was an.
nounced.
The new two-way forays FOLLOWED
a night Of minor aerial activity dur.
ing which a small force of RAJ
Mosquitoes bombed unspecified tar.
gets in the Ruhr Valley while Other
British planes laid mines in enemy
waters. No planes were lost in these
operations.
16 Naxi Planes Downed.
Although the weather in Nor
mandy yesterday and last night held
supporting operations to 500 sorties
these included some Of the most In
tensive attacks yet made.
Sixteen German planes were shot
down with seven Allied planes re.
ported missing thus far. Ten were
destroyed by a squadron Of Cana
dian Spitfires over Laigle. IS miles
southeast Of Caen, in the biggest
SQUADRON coup Of the Nofmandy
campaign. 7'a@'@'' :
American Thunderbolt fighter
bombers made what was described
as one Of the longest dive bombing
attacks to date against II important
bridges battered during the day.
Between 80 and 40 short ofder'
missions requested by the ground
forces were executed for the purpose
OF knocking out German strong
points and gun positions In the path
OF advancing American forces.
Naxis Put Lookouts on Trucks.
Patrolling fighter bombers, looking
for a chance to pounce on German
movements toward the front, found
both the main and secondary roads
empty. Even big trucks, seeking
protection against air attacks
crawled along farm roads and coun-
try lanes.
The Germans themselves offered
further testimony to their transport
dimculties, announcing an extra
crewman had been assigned to each
vehicle-to do nothing but watch
for planes and shout to his com.
panions when to dive for the road
side bitches.
Complementing the previous night.
heavy bomber attack on the railroad
bottleneck at Tours, three squadrons
OF Thunderbolts scored II direct hits