Ivo De Jong - Mission 85: The U.S. Eighth Air Forces Battle over Holland, August 19, 1943

MISSION 85

The Stackpole Military History Series

---

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Cavalry Raids of the Civil War Ghost, Thunderbolt, and Wizard

In the Lions Mouth

Picketts Charge Witness to Gettysburg

WORLD WAR I

Doughboy War

WORLD WAR II

After D-Day

Airborne Combat

Armor Battles of the Waffen-SS, 194345

Armoured Guardsmen

Army of the West

Arnhem 1944

Australian Commandos

The B-24 in China

Backwater War

The Battle of France

The Battle of Sicily

Battle of the Bulge, Vol. 1

Battle of the Bulge, Vol. 2

Beyond the Beachhead

Beyond Stalingrad

The Black Bull

Blitzkrieg Unleashed

Blossoming Silk against the Rising Sun

Bodenplatte

The Brandenburger Commandos

The Brigade

Bringing the Thunder

The Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign

Coast Watching in World War II

Colossal Cracks

Condor

A Dangerous Assignment

D-Day Bombers

D-Day Deception

D-Day to Berlin

Decision in the Ukraine

Destination Normandy

Dive Bomber!

A Drop Too Many

Eagles of the Third Reich

The Early Battles of Eighth Army

Eastern Front Combat

Europe in Flames

Exit Rommel

The Face of Courage

Fist from the Sky

Flying American Combat Aircraft of World War II

For Europe

Forging the Thunderbolt

For the Homeland

Fortress France

The German Defeat in the East, 194445

German Order of Battle, Vol. 1

German Order of Battle, Vol. 2

German Order of Battle, Vol. 3

The Germans in Normandy

Germanys Panzer Arm in World War II

GI Ingenuity

Goodwood

The Great Ships

Grenadiers

Guns against the Reich

Hitlers Nemesis

Hold the Westwall

Infantry Aces

In the Fire of the Eastern Front

Iron Arm

Iron Knights

Japanese Army Fighter Aces

Japanese Naval Fighter Aces

JG 26 Luftwaffe Fighter Wing War Diary, Vol. 1

JG 26 Luftwaffe Fighter Wing War Diary, Vol. 2

Kampfgruppe Peiper at the Battle of the Bulge

The Key to the Bulge

Knights Cross Panzers

Kursk

Luftwaffe Aces

Luftwaffe Fighter Ace

Luftwaffe Fighter-Bombers over Britain

Luftwaffe Fighters and Bombers

Massacre at Tobruk

Mechanized Juggernaut or Military Anachronism?

Messerschmitts over Sicily

Michael Wittmann, Vol. 1

Michael Wittmann, Vol. 2

Mission 85

Mission 376

Mountain Warriors

The Nazi Rocketeers

Night Flyer / Mosquito Pathfinder

No Holding Back

On the Canal

Operation Mercury

Packs On!

Panzer Aces

Panzer Aces II

Panzer Aces III

Panzer Commanders of the Western Front

Panzergrenadier Aces

Panzer Gunner

The Panzer Legions

Panzers in Normandy

Panzers in Winter

Panzer Wedge, Vol. 1

Panzer Wedge, Vol. 2

The Path to Blitzkrieg

Penalty Strike

Poland Betrayed

Red Road from Stalingrad

Red Star under the Baltic

Retreat to the Reich

Rommels Desert Commanders

Rommels Desert War

Rommels Lieutenants

The Savage Sky

Ship-Busters

The Siege of Kstrin

The Siegfried Line

A Soldier in the Cockpit

Soviet Blitzkrieg

Stalins Keys to Victory

Surviving Bataan and Beyond

T-34 in Action

Tank Tactics

Tigers in the Mud

Triumphant Fox

The 12th SS, Vol. 1

The 12th SS, Vol. 2

Twilight of the Gods

Typhoon Attack

The War against Rommels Supply Lines

War in the Aegean

War of the White Death

Winter Storm

Wolfpack Warriors

Zhukov at the Oder

THE COLD WAR / VIETNAM

Cyclops in the Jungle

Expendable Warriors

Fighting in Vietnam

Flying American Combat Aircraft: The Cold War

Here There Are Tigers

Land with No Sun

MiGs over North Vietnam

Phantom Reflections

Street without Joy

Through the Valley

Two One Pony

WARS OF AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Never-Ending Conflict

The Rhodesian War

GENERAL MILITARY HISTORY

Carriers in Combat

Cavalry from Hoof to Track

Desert Battles

Doughboy War

Guerrilla Warfare

Ranger Dawn

Sieges

The Spartan Army

MISSION 85

The U.S. Eighth Air Forces Battle
over Holland, August 19, 1943

Ivo de Jong

STACKPOLE
BOOKS

Copyright 1998 by Ivo de Jong

Published in the United States in 2013 by
STACKPOLE BOOKS
5067 Ritter Road
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
www.stackpolebooks.com

Originally published in the Netherlands by Liberation Museum 1944 in 1996. This edition published by arrangement with the author. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Stackpole Books.

Cover design by Tracy Patterson

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jong, Ivo de, 1963
Mission 85 : the U.S. Eighth Air Forces battle over Holland, August 19, 1943/
Ivo de Jong.
pages cm.(Stackpole military history series)
Originally published in the Netherlands by Liberation Museum 1944 in 1996.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8117-1201-9
1. United States. Air Force. Air Force, 8thHistory20th century. 2. World War, 19391945CampaignsNetherlands. 3. World War, 19391945Aerial operations, American. 4. Bombing, AerialNetherlands. 5. NetherlandsHistoryGerman occupation, 19401945. I. Title. II. Title: U.S. Eighth Air Forces battle over Holland, August 19, 1943. III. Title: Mission eighty five. IV. Title: Mission eight five.
D790.228th .J65 2013
940.54'2192dc23

2012045018

eISBN 9780811749855

It is usually presumed that combat flying is a fast, dangerous life, and I suppose that such is the case. It is remarkable, however, how immune one becomes to danger and to death from performances of duty. None of us, I am sure, minimized in his mind the hazards of flak and fighter planes. None of us were complete fatalists, able to dismiss the possibility of injury or death on any flight. And yet such a life becomes as prosaic and commonplace as any other. The grim reaper beckoned to each of us and hovered constantly among us, chasing here and there and selecting from time to time crews and individuals for his own. Strangely enough, his choices always surprised us, and many good men were marked and taken with whom one had been conversing a few hours previous and whom one fully expected to see at mess or the club that evening. For all that, we became anesthetized to the idea of dying or to harm. Death or injury was a possibility or a fact to us. Such things became not tragedies, but events, and we did not emotionalize the obvious.

Dwight M. Curo, navigator, 303rd Bomb Group

For the boys Dear God, you summoned them to serve Your Air Force far away; Although wed rather have them here, Its not for us to say. We know the Spirit carries on when bones return to clay. We feel that flesh of man may waste and soul still not decay. We question not your reasoning in calling them away. And only ask of you to grant this prayer for them today. That they may find a happy home out there where blue meets grey. AMEN Russell G. Chester, radio operator,381st Bomb Group

Contents

Next page