The Mighty Eighth Air Force
bomber image

 26 April 1945

THURSDAY, 26 APRIL 1945

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 970: During the night of
26/27 Apr, 6 of 8 B-24s drop leaflets in France, the Netherlands and
Germany; 1 B-24 crashes on takeoff. 2 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions.

TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In Germany, 125 bombers hit
Plattling Airfield; fighters escort the bombers, fly airfield cover, carry
out armed reconnaissance in Germany and Czechoslovakia, drop leaflets, and
cooperate with the US XII Corps as its forces cross into Austria SE of
Passau, and the XX Corps as it begins a full-scale assault across the Danube
River at Regensburg; fighters claim 19 combat victories. Unit moves in
Germany: HQ IX Tactical Air Command from Lahn Airfield, Marburg to Weimar;
160th and 161st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons, 363d Tactical
Reconnaissance Group, from Gutersloh to Brunswick with F-6s; 162d Tactical
Reconnaissance Squadron, 10th Photographic Group (Reconnaissance), from
Wiesbaden to Furth with F-6s.