January 1945

The Mighty Eighth - Friday, 23 March 1945

FRIDAY, 23 MARCH 1945

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 3 missions are flown.
Mission 908: The Allied ground assault across the lower Rhine River begins;
1,276 bombers and 499 fighters visually attack rail targets in W and C
Germany; they claim 1-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; 7 bombers are lost:
1. 319 B-24s are sent to hit the Rheine Bridge (79) and the Osnabruck (80)
and Munster (142) marshalling yards; 2 others hit Hoya Airfield, a target of
opportunity; 3 B-24s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 95 damaged; 1
airman is KIA, 3 WIA and 35 MIA. Escorting are 79 of 80 P-51s.
2. 519 B-17s are sent to hit marshalling yards Hengstey (113), Giesecke
(91), Holzwickede (184) and the Unna yard at Dormund (38); secondary targets
hit are Meschede (19) and marshalling yards at Siegen (93) and Marburg (10);
targets of opportunity are Herdecke (10), Haliger (1) and Schwerte (10); 3
B-17s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 178 damaged; 6 airmen are KIA, 4
WIA and 27 MIA. 82 P-51s escort.
3. 438 B-17s are dispatched to hit marshalling yards at Coesfeld (145),
Recklinghausen (120) and Gladbeck (141); targets of opportunity are Hechfeldt
(12) and the marshalling yard at Westerholt (13); 1 B-17 is lost; 3 airmen
are WIA and 10 MIA. The escort is 71 of 79 P-51s.
4. 125 of 131 P-51s fly a fighter sweep of the Bremen-Kassel area; they
claim 1-0-0 aircraft in the air and 0-0-1 on the ground.
5. 71 of 84 P-51s fly a sweep for the Ninth AF.
6. 16 P-51s escort 15 F-5s and 4 Spitfires on photo reconnaissance missions
over Germany.
7. 25 of 27 P-51s fly weather reconnaissance missions.
Mission 909: 1 B-17, escorted by 4 P-51s, bombs Ettinghausen Airfield in a
Micro-H Mk II radar test.
Mission 910: During the night, 9 of 10 B-24s drop leaflets in the
Netherlands and Germany; and 19 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions to Denmark.

TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In Germany, around 800 A-20s, A-26s
and B-26s strike 7 communications centers, a factory, and targets of
opportunity (including several flak positions); attacks on communications
centers are aimed at obstructing the movement of reinforcements to the front;
fighters escort the bombers, fly patrols and armed reconnaissance, attack
assigned ground targets, support the US III and VII Corps SE of Honnef and E
of the Wied River and the XII and XX Corps astride and on the W bank of the
Rhine River between Mainz and Worms. The 107th Tactical Reconnaissance
Squadron, 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, moves from Gosselies, Belgium
to Vogelsang, Germany with F-6s.