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The Mighty Eighth - Wednesday, 14 March 1945 |
| WEDNESDAY, 14 MARCH 1945 EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO) STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 3 missions are flown. Mission 886: 1,262 bombers and 804 fighters are dispatched to hit oil, rail and industrial targets in Germany; they claim 17-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air; 3 B-17s and 2 fighters are lost: 1. 526 B-17s are sent to hit oil refineries at Nienhagen (58) and Misburg (56), the Gebruder munitions plant (75) and Maschnbau (61) and Eisenwerke (74) factories at Hannover and the Seelze marshalling yard (80); secondary targets hit are Osnabruck (29) and the marshalling yard at Hannover; attacks were made visually and with H2X radar; 2 B-17s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 188 damaged; 3 airmen are KIA, 6 WIA and 19 MIA. 192 of 204 P-51s escort; 2 are damaged. 2. 449 B-17s are dispatched to hit the bridges at Vlotho (72) and Bad Ostenhausen (114), the marshalling yard and road junction at Lohne (144) and industrial plants at Hildesheim (60); 39 hit Osnabruck, a secondary target; targets of opportunity are the marshalling yards at Hameln (12) and Wetzlar (1) and Diemonde (1); all but one target is bombed visually; 1 B-17 is lost and 56 damaged; 1 airman is WIA and 9 MIA. Escorting are 182 of 194 P-51s; they claim 1-0-1 aircraft. 3. 272 B-24s are sent to hit the marshalling yards at Holzwickede (31) and Gutersloh (126); 110 others hit the secondary target, the marshalling yard at Giessen; attacks are made visually and with H2X radar; 4 B-24s are damaged; 1 airman is KIA and 5 WIA. The escort is 185 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 3-0-0 aircraft; 1 P-47 is lost (pilot MIA). 4. 6 B-17s fly a screening mission without loss. 5. 29 of 33 P-41s escort Ninth AF bombers. 6. 50 P-51s fly a sweep of the Stein-Huder-Kassel area claiming 11-0-0 aircraft without loss. 7. 82 P-51s fly a sweep over the Remagen bridgehead; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot MIA) and 1 damaged beyond repair. 8. 20 P-51s escort 33 F-5s and 3 Spitfires on photo reconnaissance missions over Germany and Czechoslovakia. 9. 26 of 27 P-51s fly a scouting mission claiming 1-0-0 aircraft. Mission 887: 9 B-17s use DISNEY rockets weapons on the Ijmuiden submarine pens without loss. Mission 888: 7 B-24s bomb the marshalling yard at Wiesbaden by PFF during the night without loss. TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In Germany, 350+ A-20s, A-26s and B-26s hit 3 airfields, 4 rail bridges, a junction, 5 towns, and 3 targets of opportunity as the interdiction operations continue; fighters escort the bombers, attack railroads and other special targets, fly patrols, sweeps, and armed reconnaissance, cover the Remagen area, and support the US XII Corps as it begins a drive from the Mosel River to the Rhine River, and the XX Corps operations W of Trier and Saarburg. HQ 367th Fighter Group moves from St Dizier to Conflans, France. The 410th Fighter Squadron, 373d Fighter Group, moves from Le Culot, Belgium to Venlo, the Netherlands with P-47s. |