The Schaffhausen border community of Thayngen was bombed by American bombers on December 25th, 1944. They had been ordered to attack the railway bridge in Singen (D). in 1944. One man died. The nine bomber pilots had thought that Thayngen was the German town of Singen. 38 B-26 American 320th Bomber Group bombers took off from Dijon, France, at noon on December 25th, to destroy the Singen railway bridge. Three of them had to turn back, due to defects; 26 actually managed to destroy the targeted bridge. But nine pilots mistook the Swiss border town of Thayngen for the German town of Singen and dropped their bombs there. Because it was Christmas and hardly anyone was working in the village factories, only one person, a signalman, was killed. The property damage paid by the Americans in 1951 amounted to over eight million francs, more than six million of which had been caused by the destruction of the Tonwerke AG - a brickworks. The factory buildings were only a heap of rubble after the US bombers turned back. The Knorr factory, the power station, the slaughterhouse quarantine and the Kelis and Xamax companies also suffered damage. According to the mission report known today, the US planes mistook their targets at Thayngen for tracks and a large warehouse.
