The Mighty Eighth Air Force
 plane
26 June 1944
MONDAY, 26 JUNE 1944

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 72 B-17s leave Poltava and
Mirgorod, USSR, rendezvous with 55 P-51s from Piryatin, bomb the oil refinery
and marshalling yard at Drohobycz, Poland (1 returns to the USSR because of
mechanical trouble), and then proceed to Italy; Fifteenth Air Force P-51s
meet the formation 1 hour after the attack and escort the B-17s to Foggia; it
is planned to return the B-17s to bases in the UK on 27 Jun but bad weather
delays this move until 5 Jul.

TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In France, weather cancels all
operations save a few fighter sorties which result in claims against a few
military vehicles and 3 aircraft as US ground forces capture Cherbourg; 3 US
fighters are lost.