The Mighty Eighth Air Force
 plane
27 November 1944
MONDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 1944

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 727: 530 bombers and 770
fighters are dispatched to make PFF attacks on marshalling yards in Germany
and fighter-bomber strikes on 4 oil centers in N and C Germany; they claim
102-4-12 aircraft; 15 fighters are lost:
1. 148 of 190 B-17s hit the Bingen marshalling yard; 2 others hit targets
of opportunity; 46 bombers are damaged; 2 airmen are WIA. Escorting are 91 of
95 P-51s; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot MIA).
2. 181 of 186 B-17s hit the Offenburg marshalling yard; 1 hits Freiburg; 14
B-17s are damaged; 1 airman is WIA. Escorting are 105 of 107 P-51s; 2 P-51s
are lost (pilot MIA) and 1 damaged beyond repair.
3. 144 of 154 B-24s hit the Offenburg marshalling yard; 7 others hit
targets of opportunity; 9 B-24s are damaged. Escorting are 45 of 48 P-51s
without loss.
4. 460 P-47s and P-51s fly fighter-bomber missions against oil targets in N
and C Germany; about 750 Luftwaffe fighters, the largest sighting to date,
attack in the Magdeburg-Munster-Hannover areas when the Germans mistake the
fighters for a heavy bomber formation; the AAF claims 98-4-11 aircraft in the
air and 4-0-1 on the ground; 2 P-47s and 10 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA).

TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): Weather forbids bomber missions;
fighters patrol over W Germany, dive-bomb a bridge at Rurdorf, and support
the US 104th, 8th, and 1st Infantry Divisions near Hurtgen and in the
Weisweiler-Franz area, and the XIX Corps (mainly the 2d Armored Division) at
Merzenhausen.