 In addition, as the airfield in range of Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauder medium bombers and P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bombers in eastern France, attacks on the airfield by these tactical units with 500-pound General-Purpose bombs; unguided rockets and .50 caliber machine gun sweeps were frequent.These attacks would take place when Eighth Air Force heavy bombers (B-17s, B-24s) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base, with the attacks being timed to have the maximum effect possible to keep the interceptors pinned down on the ground and be unable to attack the heavy bombers.At the end of March 1945, United States Army units moving to close the Ruhr Pocket captured Münster-Handorf Airfield.