Air Force the Official Service Journal - Air Force Historical Studies ...

Production charts show the disaster these bombings
brought to Renault, and thus to l\azi operations. But even
these charts arc too lenient because, as ~I. Renault observed,
they were made by Frcnclnucn for German consumption.
All through the occupation, the Renault works was under
the rigid control of an able German commissar who was
supposedly a civilian but who W~IS last seen in Paris, just
before the evacuation, wearing an officer's uniform.
Airfields always stood high on the 8th Air Force priority
Jist and among the most important in France were those
at Villucoublay and Orlv, ncar Paris, and the Rhcirns-
Champagne nirbusc farther north.
Villucoublay was once the largest of all Luftwaffe installations,
the sen icc base for all northwest France and a highly
active interception field. Its complex facilities included
hangars and repair shops for F\V-I90s, JU-88s and night
fighters, plants for assembly and service of army cooperation
aircraft, a shop for l lciukcls, several others for Junkers transports,
a training field, and acres of rul1\\'ays, aprons and dispersals.
Eight hundred men worked on I"\V repair, nearly
1,300 on Junkers, plus Il\~Jl\Y other employees.
This field was hit four times. In [unc, 1943, B-I7s
bombed From n,ooo feet through partial cloud to destroy
much of tile F\V-I90 section. T\\"{)months later, 133 Forts
returned wit lt aiming points all over the field and knocked
Villucouhluy out of effective action for nearly eight months.
In JIlly aud AUglht, 1944, the field was again attacked hy
the 3th Air Force, tile last assault being made by B-24s to
posthole thc field and interfere with German efforts to withdraw
aircraft, ;\[ore than 300 tons of bombs were dropped
in the four missions and no section of the base escaped
d.uu.ig«. SOllie rl\l\\\'ays were rebuilt three or four times,
Orlv, a field nearby, \\'as not active until the beginning of
this year and then mainly as a storage point for V-I and
Y-2 materials. Liberators, carrying ;OO-pounders with some
incendiaries, struck Orly in May and July, demolishing two
giant dirigible hangars used for housing fly-bombs. Hangars
and other installations burned well in both instances and no
further attacks were necessary.
Photo-intelligence officers learned from French workmen
that neither at Villaeoublay nor at Orly had the Germans
set up dummy aircraft. Once they had created an entire
dummy field a few miles away, complete with fake planes,
but had lost interest in their little ruse when the British
' e . 101
Renault officials compiled t hi-, homh plot :rfter Sth\ir Forrc :ltl:1Ck on 4\pril
I lJ.+:;, Pcneil lille out liuc« fldol\ .rrc.r. doh denote' hitv. Red:lllglc .it left. m.rrkcd
"Ccrm.mv.' sho\l's \I.here Ccnn.ius :rd:IJltcd French t.mks for usc bv \\'clrrmacht.
NOVEMBER,1944
~~~ --:.,~
'.-
. ~'-, ...•;:-~~
~-" '- ......
Smashed hangars at Villacoublav were part of the score made bv
Sth :\ir l-ortc while Cel1nans held the field clur nu; hattie of Paris.
Th« cucur, had no ch.mcc to sah':lge their cLnnaged planes.
Thorough saturation of rocket il1\t:r1Lrliol1\ like
this OIlC :It Sir:1C0ll1t. Fruirc, ctfcetin'h hLrsted
l\a/.i hOlll'S of h:lllllllloring l:ngLmd into sllhlni,sioll.
9