|
||
The Mighty Eighth - Wednesday, 4 April 1945 |
| WEDNESDAY, 4 APRIL 1945 EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO) STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown. Mission 926: 1,431 bombers and 866 fighters are dispatched to hit airfields, a shipyard and a U-boat shipyard in Germany; they claim 30-4-30 Luftwaffe aircraft; 10 bombers and 4 fighters are lost. 1. 438 B-24s are sent to hit Parchim (33) and Perleberg (29) Airfields; 97 hit Wesendorf Airfield, the secondary; attacks are visual; they claim 6-4-6 aircraft; 6 B-24s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 76 damaged; 1 airman is KIA and 59 MIA. Escorting are 324 P-47s and P-51s; the P-47s claim 14-0-20 aircraft and the P-51s claim 9-0-3 aircraft; 1 P-47 and 3 P-51s are lost. 2. 443 B-17s are sent to hit Fassberg Airfield (149); secondary targets hit are Hoya (37) and Dedelsdorf (13) Airfields; targets of opportunity are Unterluss (39) and other (24); bombing is visual; 1 B-17 is lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 58 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 6 WIA and 4 MIA. The escort is 220 of 232 P-51s; 1 is lost. 3. 505 of 526 B-17s hit the Deutsche shipyard at Kiel using H2X radar; 2 others hit Eggebeck Airfield, a target of opportunity; 3 B-17s are lost and 50 damaged; 27 airmen are MIA. 208 of 223 P-51s without loss. 4. 22 of 24 B-17s fly a DISNEY mission attacking the Finkenwarder U-boat yard at Hamburg without loss. 5. 19 P-51s fly a scouting mission and claim 0-0-1 aircraft. 6. 25 P-51s escort 8 F-5s and 2 P-38s on photo and radar reconnaissance missions over Germany, claiming 1-0-0 aircraft. 7. 16 P-51s escort 1 OA-10 and 2 B-17s on air-sea-rescue patrols. TACTICAL OPERATIONS First Tactical Air Force (Provisional): The 405th Fighter Squadron, 371st Fighter Group, moves from Metz, France to Eschborn Airfield, Frankfurt, Germany with P-47s. Ninth Air Force: HQ XXIX Tactical Air Command (Provisional) returns to the operational control of HQ Ninth AF (from the RAF Second Tactical AF) as the US Ninth Army reverts to control of the Twelfth Army Group (from the Twenty First Army Group); the British ground and air HQ have operationally controlled the XXIX Tactical Air Command and Ninth Army since shortly after the Ardennes breakthrough and the Battle of the Bulge. In Germany, 330+ B-26s, A-20s and A-26s hit the Ebrach oil depot, Crailsheim marshalling yard and barracks area, Grossaspach supply depot, the town of Ellswangen, Backnang rail and road junction, and 2 targets of opportunity; fighters escort the bombers, fly patrols, sweeps, and armed reconnaissance, attack special targets, and support the US 104th Infantry Division at Scherfede and Hardehausen, the 9th Armored Division in the Warburg area, the XX Corps in the Muhlhausen-Kassel areas, the 2d and 5th Armored Divisions in the Hameln and Minden areas on the Weser River, and the 8th Armored Division as it assaults the Ruhr pocket in the Lippstadt area. Units moving: the 107th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, from Vogelsang to Limburg, Germany with F-6s; the 125th Liaison Squadron, IX Fighter Command (attached to Twelfth Army Group), from Munchen-Gladen to Haltern, Germany with L-5s; the 155th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, from Le Culot, Belgium to Maastricht, the Netherlands with F-3s; the 355th Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group, from Rosieres-en-Haye, France to Ober Olm, Germany with P-51s; and the 494th, 495th and 496th Bombardment Squadrons (Medium), 344th Bombardment Group (Medium), from Cormeilles-en-Vexin, France to Juzaine Airfield, Florennes, Belgium with B-26s. |