What are these ground structures

This is a photo I found somewhere on internet. It was captioned 'Bombing over unknown city'. Can anyone identify the city?

Also, what are the three structures on the ground along the right side of the picture?



TommyU

They look very much like "star forts" of the napoleonic era. If they are this is most likely to be in southern Germany in the area around the Rhine. There are six sites in Germany where you can find star forts, Augsberg, Berlin, Frankfurt-am-Main, Hamberg, Lubeck and Rostock. If you can identify the individual unit flying the B-17's it may help you find where it is.

The unit is the 486th who flew Forts from July '44 onwards from Sudbury. The yellow wing tips and tail markings date the photo as being post late January '45.

That should narrow it down a bit, does anyone know what their principle targets were?

Therefore the city could be;

Kaiserslautern
Heilbronn
Mannheim
Hohenburg
Bohlen
Chemnitz
Wesel
Hamm
Frankfurt
Rheine
Nürnberg
Neumarkt
Bremen
Neuberg
Berlin
Leipzig
Kassel
Lonnewitz
Brunswick
Ingelstadt
Rauxel
Nemarks
Dortmund
Hamburg
Swinemünde
Nienhagen
Oranienburg
Zwickau.
Marx
Mulheim
Holzwickede
Varel
Dedenhausen
Hannover
Hamburg
Derben
Kiel
Furth
Parchim
Schwerin
Hof
Briest
Royan, FR
Dresden
Pirna
Wustermark
München

That narrows it down!

Yes only three cities on that list have star forts, Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt, it could of course be another city that is overflown by the unit, Star forts are a Dutch invention so if they flew over Holland it could be there.

Well the place is near a very wide river, but the only one of those targets which has one of these forts that has a wide river would be Hamburg ie the Elbe. Frankfurt is on the Main which I dont think is that wide.

Admittedly, I don't know a lot about fortifications, but how often did they put three of them in a row like that?

Seems like overkill to me. (pun intended)

You will find a similar situation around Portsmouth, but dont think their navigation was that far out.