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MONDAY, 22 MAY 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Occupancy of all planned
Eighth
Air Force stations in Britain is completed with the transfer of the
airfield
at N Pickenham from the RAF to the Eighth; total stations number 77,
including 66 airfields, occupied by 82 operational or HQ units.
Mission 361: 438 bombers and 568 fighters are dispatched on PFF
attacks to
targets in Germany and France; 5 bombers and 7 fighters are lost:
1. 342 are dispatched to the port area at Kiel, Germany; 289 hit the
primary
and 5 bomb targets of opportunity; 5 B-17s are lost, 1 damaged
beyond repair
and 209 damaged; 4 airmen are KIA, 3 WIA and 78 MIA.
2. 94 of 96 B-24s hit V-weapon sites at Siracourt, France; 1 B-24 is
damaged.
Escort is provided by 145 P-38s, 95 P-47s and 328 P-51s; P-38s claim
8-1-5
Luftwaffe aircraft, P-47s claim 12-1-2 and P-51s claim 2-2-1; 3
P-38s, 3
P-47s and a P-51 are lost; 1 P-38 and 2 P-47s are damaged beyond
repair; 1
P-38, 2 P-47s and a P-51 are damaged; 6 pilots are MIA.
130 P-47s are dispatched on a fighter-bomber attack railroad bridges
at
Hasselt and Liege, Belgium; 1 P-47 is lost and 1 damaged.
Mission 363: 4 of 4 B-17s drop 320,000 leaflets on The Hague,
Haarlem,
Rotterdam and Utrecht, The Netherlands without loss.
12 B-24s are dispatched on CARPETBAGGER missions without loss.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): Around 330 B-26s and A-20s
bomb
airfields and other targets in the Cherbourg, Calais, and Paris
areas of
France while a like number of P-47s and P-51s dive-bomb marshalling
yards,
airfields and other targets in the same general areas.
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