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FRIDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 633: As part of
Operation
FRANTIC, 110 B-17s are dispatched to drop supplies to Warsaw
patriots and
then proceed to bases in the USSR; a weather front is encountered
over the
North Sea and the bombers are recalled. Escort is provided by 149 of
156
P-51s; 2 P-51s collide in a cloud and are lost.
Three Fighter Wings and the 15 Fighter Groups are reassigned from
the VIII
Fighter Command to the three Bombardment Divisions as follows:
1st Bombardment Division
67th Fighter Wing: 20th, 352d, 356th, 359th and 364th Fighter Groups
2d Bombardment Division
65th Fighter Wing: 4th, 56th, 355th, 361st and 479th Fighter Groups
3d Bombardment Division
66th Fighter Wing: 55th, 78th, 339th, 353d and 357th Fighter Groups
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In France, bad weather
prevents
bomber operations; the IX Tactical Air Command supports US First
Army troops
and in Germany, flies armed reconnaissance around Cologne and from
Trier to
the Rhine River area; the XIX Tactical Air Command supports the US
Third Army
and flies armed reconnaissance in the Nancy-Strasbourg area; HQ
Ninth AF
moves from Sunninghill Park, England to Chantilly; HQ 48th Fighter
Group and
the 492d and 494th Fighter Squadrons move from Villacoublay to
Camrai/
Niergnies with P-47s; HQ 50th Fighter Group and the 10th, 81st and
313th
Fighter Squadrons move from Orly to Laon with P-47s; HQ 365th
Fighter Group
moves from Bretigny to Juvincourt; the 365th, 366th and 367th
Fighter
Squadrons, 358th Fighter Group, move from Pontorson to Vitry-le-Francois
with
P-47s; and the 597th and 598th Bombardment Squadrons (Medium), 397th
Bombardment Group (Medium), move from Gorges to Dreux with B-26s.
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