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SUNDAY, 5 MARCH 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 248: 219 B-24s are
dispatched to hit airfields at Mont De Marsan, Cayeux and
Bordeaux/Merignac,
France but bad cloud conditions force a target change and multiple
aborts; 62
hit Bergerac Airfield, 60 hit Cognac/Chateaubernard Airfield, 41 hit
Landes
de Bussac Airfield and 1 hits La Roche Airfield; they claim 14-2-5
Luftwaffe
aircraft; 4 B-24s are lost, 1 is damaged beyond repair and 23
damaged;
casualties are 1 WIA and 35 MIA. Escort is provided by 34 P-38s, 185
P-47s
and 88 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51s; 2 P-38s are lost, 1 is
damaged
beyond repair and 1 pilot is killed and another MIA; 1 P-47 is
damaged and 1
pilot is KIA; the P-51s claim 14-0-6 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air
and 0-0-6
on the ground; 3 P-51s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 1
damaged; 1
pilot is WIA and 4 MIA.
Mission 249: 5 of 5 B-17s drop 250 bundles of leaflets on Le Mans,
Paris,
Orleans and Reims, France at 2132-2152 hours without loss.
A CARPETBAGGER mission is also flown.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): 217 B-26s attack NOBALL
(V-weapon)
targets in the Saint-Omer-Abbeville, France area.
HQ 365th Fighter Group and 386th, 387th and 388th Fighter Squadrons
move
from Gosfield to Beaulieu, England with P-47s.
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