5 March1945

MONDAY, 5 MARCH 1945

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

AIRBORNE OPERATIONS (IX Troop Carrier Command): HQ 52d Troop Carrier Wing
moves from Cottesmore, England to Amiens, France.

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 3 missions are flown.
Mission 865: 429 bombers and 689 fighters are dispatched to hit oil targets
in Germany; the primary target for the B-17s is the synthetic oil plant at
Ruhland but weather forces them to hit the secondary target; all bombing is
with H2X radar; 1 B-17 is lost:
1. 233 of 303 B-17s hit the secondary target, the marshalling yard at
Chemnitz; targets of opportunity are Plauen (34) and Fulda (9); 1 B-17 is
lost and 15 damaged; 9 airmen are MIA. Escorting are 369 of 420 P-51s; 3
P-51s are damaged beyond repair and 1 pilot is KIA.
2. 120 of 126 B-24s hit the Harburg oil refinery at Hamburg without loss.
The escort is 186 P-47s and P-51s without loss.
3. 27 P-51s attack the marshalling yard at Kreuztal; 1 P-51 is damaged
beyond repair.
4. 28 P-51s fly a scouting mission.
5. 14 P-51s escort 4 F-5s on a photo reconnaissance mission over Germany.
Mission 866: 21 of 24 B-24s bomb the Wiesbaden rail station by PFF markers
during the night.
Mission 867: 9 of 11 B-24s drop leaflets in the Netherlands, France and
Germany during the night.

TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In Germany, 565 B-26s, A-20s and
A-26s attack 6 marshalling yards, a communications center, an ordnance depot,
a city area and targets of opportunity with the aim of obstructing
reinforcements and supplies to German forces being pushed back across the
Rhine River; fighters escort the bombers, drop leaflets in the Cologne-Bonn
area, and fly armed reconnaissance over the Ruhr and Hamm-Duisburg area.