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THURSDAY, 12 OCTOBER 1944
EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown.
Mission 674: 552 bombers and 514 fighters are dispatched to hit
targets in
Germany; they claim 18-3-1 aircraft; 3 bombers and 5 fighters are
lost:
1. Weather prevents the 290 B-24s dispatched to hit the primaries at
Vechta,
Achmer, Rheine and Varrelbusch; PFF means were used to hit the
secondary, the
marshalling yard at Osnabruck (267); 5 others hit Diepholz Airfield,
a target
of opportunity; 2 B-24s are lost and 67 damaged; 19 airmen are MIA.
Escort is
provided by 210 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 1-1-0 aircraft in the
air.
2. 262 B-17s are dispatched to aviation industries at Bremen (267)
bombing
visually; 1 other hits a target of opportunity; 1 B-17 is lost, 1
damaged
beyond repair and 59 damaged. 7 airmen are KIA, 1 WIA and 9 MIA.
Escort is
provided by 273 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 17-2-1 aircraft; 5 P-51s
are lost
(pilots MIA).
Mission 675: 8 aircraft are dispatched to drop leaflets in the
Netherlands,
France and Germany during the night; 2 B-24s are lost.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): HQ Ninth AF is delegated
administrative (in addition to operational) control over HQ XII
Tactical Air
Command hitherto assumed by US Strategic Air Forces in Europe
(USSTAF).
Advanced HQ XIX Tactical Air Command arrives at Nancy, France,
following the
advance of the US Third Army. Almost 250 B-26s and A-20s bomb
Camp-de-Bitche,
France military camp, rail bridges at Grevenbroich and Ahrweiler,
Germany,
city areas of Langerwehe and Aldenhoven, Germany, and Venraij, the
Netherlands, and various targets of opportunity; escorting fighters
also fly
armed reconnaissance and rail cutting in the Dusseldorf and Aachen,
Germany
and Belfort, France areas, and support the VIII, XII, XV, and XX
Corps in E
France and W Germany. In France, the 14th Liaison Squadron, XIX
Tactical Air
Command (attached to Third Army), moves from Gussainville to Nancy
with L-5s;
the 365th, 366th and 367th Fighter Squadrons, 358th Fighter Group,
based at
Vitry-le-Francois, begins operating from St Dizier with P-47s; the
586th and
587th Bombardment Squadrons (Medium), 394th Bombardment Group
(Medium), moves
from Bricy to Cambrai/Niergnies with B-26s.
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