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SUNDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
AIRBORNE OPERATIONS (IX Troop Carrier Command): Between 17-26 Sep,
the IX
Troop Carrier Command supports Operation MARKET-GARDEN as follows:
Aircraft dispatched: 3,996 of which 3,634 are successful
Gliders dispatched: 1,899 of which 1,635 are successful
Losses: 98 aircraft and 137 gliders
Troops dropped or landed: 30,481
Vehicles dropped or landed: 1,001
Artillery weapons dropped or landed: 463
Tons of equipment, including fuel, dropped or landed: 3,559
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): The last UK-USSR-Italy-UK
shuttle
mission (Operations FRANTIC) is completed as 72 B-17s and 59 P-51s
fly
without bombs from Italy to the UK; 2 B-17s and a P-51 abort and a
P-51
crashlands SW of Paris; 70 B-17s 57 P-51s land safely in the UK.
Mission 637: 875 B-17s are dispatched bomb 117 flak batteries and
installations and an airfield, all in the Netherlands; 815 B-17s
attack the
primaries and 6 hit Eisenach; 2 B-17s are lost, 1 damaged beyond
repair and
119 damaged; 9 airmen are KIA, 6 WIA and 15 MIA. Escort is provided
by 141
of 153 P-51s; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot is MIA).
503 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s escort aircraft of the First Allied
Airborne
Army making a parachute and glider drop of 20,000 troops into the
Netherlands
to secure the axis of advance toward the Zuider Zee for the British
Second
Army, as part of Operation MARKET-GARDEN, 17-30 Sep; troops dropped
are the I
Airborne Corps, consisting of the British 1 Airborne Division (with
Polish
Parachute Brigade) and US 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions; the
fighters also
bomb and strafe flak positions and other ground targets,
encountering intense
flak and about 30 fighters; they claim 7-0-0 aircraft in the air,
1-0-0 on
the ground and the destruction of 107 flak positions; 6 P-47s and 7
P-51s are
lost, 3 P-47s and 2 P-51s damaged beyond repair and 41 P-47s and 6
P-51s
damaged; 2 pilots are WIA and 11 MIA.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): No combat bomber missions are
flown;
weather permits 1 leaflet mission. XIX Tactical Air Command supports
US VIII
Corps in the Brest, France area and in Germany, flies armed
reconnaissance
over the Trier and Saarbrucken areas and IX Tactical Air Command
flies armed
reconnaissance in the Dusseldorf, Duren, Cologne, and Linz/Rhine
areas,
supports the US 2d and 5th Armored Divisions and 4th Infantry
Division in the
Netherlands, and participates in Operation MARKET-GARDEN. In France,
HQ 84th
and 303d Fighter Wings move from St Quentin and Rennes,
respectively, to
Vermand; the 507th Fighter Squadron, 404th Fighter Group, moves from
Bretigny to Juvincourt with P-47s.
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