26 February 1945

MONDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 1945

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

AIRBORNE OPERATIONS (IX Troop Carrier Command): HQ 436th Troop Carrier
Group and the 80th, 81st and 82d Troop Carrier Squadrons move from Membury,
England to Melun, France with C-47s.

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown.
Mission 849: 1,207 bombers and 726 fighters are dispatched to make H2X
radar attacks on three Berlin rail stations; they claim 6-0-0 Luftwaffe
aircraft; 3 B-17s and 3 P-51s are lost:
1. 377 B-17s are sent to hit the Schlesischer rail station (363); 1 hits
Osnabruck, a target of opportunity; 2 B-17s are lost and 21 damaged; 1 airman
is WIA and 18 MIA. 214 of 244 P-51s escort claiming 4-0-0 aircraft in the
air.
2. 446 B-17s set out to hit the Alexanderplatz rail station (418); 4 others
hit a target of opportunity; 1 B-17s is lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 43
damaged; 8 airmen are KIA, 2 WIA and 9 MIA. Escorting are 232 of 240 P-51s;
they claim 2-0-0 aircraft on the ground; 3 P-51s are lost (2 pilots MIA).
3. 361 B-24s are dispatched to hit the North rail station (285); 37 hit
Eberswalde, the secondary target; 4 hit a target of opportunity; 2 B-24s are
damaged beyond repair and 26 damaged; 3 airmen are WIA and 3 MIA. The escort
is 20 P-47s and 190 P-51s.
4. 17 B-17s and 6 B-24s fly screening missions.
5. 31 of 32 P-51 fly a scouting mission.
Mission 850: During the night, 12 B-24s drop leaflets in the Netherlands
and Germany; and 5 B-24s fly a CARPETBAGGER mission.

TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In Germany, 235 A-20s, A-26s, and
B-26s attack the communications center at Wickrath, rail and road junctions
at Zieverich and Gladbach, a supply and ammunition depot (casual target), the
towns of Kapellen, Viersen, and Munstereifel, and targets of opportunity;
weather limits fighter operations to armed reconnaissance flights in the
Aschaffenburg-Wurzburg area by the XIX Tactical Air Command.