26.11.1944

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Erich

the old Sage
13,035
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May 20, 2004
Platonic Sphere
black day for Jg 301 vs US 2nd BD and the 2nd SF and 355th fg. Jg 301 lost 50 fighters and close to 40 pilots in this terriblwe engagement trying to annihilate the B-24's of the 2nd BD, shooting down 16 of the 491st bg and 5 of the 445th bg.

Member drgndog and I have gone over this mission extensively and Bill will have probably the most detailed information in English regarding this air operation in his new book on the 355th fighter group. I will has my health and time permit will cover more of the JG 301's activites of this date, hoping to cover JG 301 in 1-2 volumes.

if one is interested go through the old archiv's and you should more info's on this mission ..........

Remember the fallen .....
 
Mike

thanks for the response and links, yes the 361st shot hell out of JG 1...

Chris you are correct, his second mission shot down in action with the 2nd SF or 355th fg Mustangs.

remember the brave . . . .
 
Unteroffizier Siegfried Baer flying Fw 190A-9 which Wayne has done a beautiful job modelling .............. Weiße 2.
 
Erich - it was definitely a day for 'remembrance' of a lot of young LW pilots facing an avalanche they knew they couldn't stop - but they climbed into their cockpits and followed their leaders.

A lot of good men fell on both sides.

How are You doing?

Bill

PS we have a litter of six Wolfhounds - all Black and hellions. The cycle begins anew.
 
Chris thanks for posting the links, will check them out once I get home in December and maybe update. Bill is so right youth from both sides fell, way too many of them in the almost ceaseless attempt to pound the Reich, everything was set for the massive US fleet and a rare massive LW onslaught, one can only think had the US Mustang escorts not been in the area.....................nope don't want to think aabout it.

Bill nopt bad at all the docs are pleased with my progression........feel weak but up and walking pretty well. glad the new kids are giving you joy.
 
I found a slew of articles written by Merle Olmsted and one of them is entitled "November" and is all about 11/44. in it he has the 8th claiming 114 E/As destroyed for the day. so JG 301 accounted for almost half the days total losses. on the allied side some groups like the 355th and 361st were in the thick of it and some like the 357th flew to Hamm and back without seeing one E/A.
 
the 355th/2SF, 339th and 361st accounted for 2/3 of all the credits in a one hunded mile ellipse from gardelegen to dummer lake... all trying to defend Misburg.
 
were the loses this day the reason they disbanded units like III./KG77...to get replacements and refill its ranks? or did something happen at a later date to bring that into being? and are there records for KG77?
 
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It's a little pedantic but I notice that the chart has an error when they added up the "Total pers/cas" losses for III./JG26. Instead of 1 it should have been 2. The losses for the "Total Losses(Germany)" line of 87 is correct though so the person making the chart must have added the two "Total Losses(Germany)" columns instead of the "Total pers/cas" column to get their answer.


Wheels
 

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