Operation Crossbow (Project Danny)

Project Danny
Operational scope	Operation Crossbow
Planned	briefed at Pentagon in July 1944
Planned by	Naval Air Atlantic Staff
Objective	German V1 sites in Northern France
Executed by	never executed, planned for United States Marine Corps
Outcome	disapproved

Project Danny was a World War II plan for United States Marine Corps F4U Corsair fighter aircraft to attack German V-1 flying bomb launch sites in northern France. Although the squadrons had been trained at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and were loading onto their escort carriers for the trip to the North Atlantic, the operation was canceled before departing for the European Theatre of World War II.

Extensive land-based Combined Bomber Offensive bombings of German targets had begun in June 1943, followed by Operation Crossbow attacks on German long range weapon facilities in August 1943 and V-1 launch sites in December 1943. In July 1944 after the V-1 Robot Blitz had begun on 13 June, Commander Thomas Hinman Moorer of the Naval Air Atlantic Staff (NavAirLant) provided a Pentagon briefing on a June 1944 plan for F4U squadrons of Marine Air Group 51 (MAG-51) (including VMF-511, VMF-512, VMF-513 and VMF-514) to attack V-1 launch sites from North Sea escort carriers with Tiny Tim rockets. The plan was disapproved. Project Danny was a victim of the intense interservice rivalry that existed in the US armed forces during World War II; Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall stood up and walked out of the briefing: "That's the end of this briefing. As long as I'm in charge there'll never be a Marine in Europe." The United States Navy subsequently was permitted to conduct ground-based Operation Anvil attacks on Crossbow sites in August 1944. Had the operation proceeded, MAG-51 would have been the second Marine Corsair squadrons to deploy from aircraft carriers, the first being at the Bombing of Rabaul on November 1943.

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