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MONDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 727: 530 bombers
and 770
fighters are dispatched to make PFF attacks on marshalling yards in
Germany
and fighter-bomber strikes on 4 oil centers in N and C Germany; they
claim
102-4-12 aircraft; 15 fighters are lost:
1. 148 of 190 B-17s hit the Bingen marshalling yard; 2 others hit
targets
of opportunity; 46 bombers are damaged; 2 airmen are WIA. Escorting
are 91 of
95 P-51s; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot MIA).
2. 181 of 186 B-17s hit the Offenburg marshalling yard; 1 hits
Freiburg; 14
B-17s are damaged; 1 airman is WIA. Escorting are 105 of 107 P-51s;
2 P-51s
are lost (pilot MIA) and 1 damaged beyond repair.
3. 144 of 154 B-24s hit the Offenburg marshalling yard; 7 others hit
targets of opportunity; 9 B-24s are damaged. Escorting are 45 of 48
P-51s
without loss.
4. 460 P-47s and P-51s fly fighter-bomber missions against oil
targets in N
and C Germany; about 750 Luftwaffe fighters, the largest sighting to
date,
attack in the Magdeburg-Munster-Hannover areas when the Germans
mistake the
fighters for a heavy bomber formation; the AAF claims 98-4-11
aircraft in the
air and 4-0-1 on the ground; 2 P-47s and 10 P-51s are lost (pilots
MIA).
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): Weather forbids bomber
missions;
fighters patrol over W Germany, dive-bomb a bridge at Rurdorf, and
support
the US 104th, 8th, and 1st Infantry Divisions near Hurtgen and in
the
Weisweiler-Franz area, and the XIX Corps (mainly the 2d Armored
Division) at
Merzenhausen.
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