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MONDAY, 4 DECEMBER 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown.
Mission 736: 1,191 bombers and 977 fighters are dispatched to make
PFF
attacks on rail targets in Germany; 3 bombers and 3 fighters are
lost:
1. 419 B-17s are dispatched to hit marshalling yards at Kassel (212)
and
Soest (188); 2 others hit targets of opportunities; 4 B-17s are
damaged
beyond repair and 3 damaged. Escorting are 375 P-47s and P-51s; 1
P-51 is
lost (pilot MIA).
2. 315 B-24s are sent to hit the Bebra marshalling yard (199);
targets of
opportunity are marshalling yards at Koblenz (78) and Giessen (21)
and other
(1); 1 B-24 is lost and 15 damaged; 10 airmen are MIA. Escorting are
290
P-47s and P-51s; they claim 6-0-11 aircraft on the ground.
3. 457 B-17s are sent to hit marshalling yards at Mainz (221) and
Giessen
(62); targets of opportunity are the Friedburg marshalling yard
(119), Fulda
(24), barges on the Rhine River (11) and other (6); 2 B-17s are
lost, 1
damaged beyond repair and 106 damaged; 1 airman is WIA and 18 MIA.
Escorting
are 238 of 244 P-51s; 2 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA).
4. 36 of 37 P-51s fly a scouting mission.
Mission 737: 10 of 11 B-17s and B-24s drop leaflets in the
Netherlands,
France and Germany during the night.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): Weather prevents bomber
operations.
In Germany, fighters fly armed reconnaissance and support the US
1st, 8th,
and 104th Infantry Divisions at Luchem, Bergstein, and E of Inde
River; and
the XII and XX Corps in drive toward the Saar River and around
Saarlautern.
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