Missions of 15. USAAF on January 21st, 1945
 

Who can provide me with any informations about that day? Missions, targets, losses, etc. Thanks in advance - Kurtl

Re: Missions of 15. USAAF on January 21st, 1945
 

Hi Kurtl,

STRATEGIC OPERATIONS
(Fifteenth Air Force): 170 B-17s bomb the Lobau and Schweehat oil refineries at Vienna, Austria; 131 P-51s and P-38s provide support. 43 P-38s bomb an oil refinery at Fiume, Italy. Other fighters escort reconnaissance missions and accompany supply-dropping operations to Yugoslavia.

TACTICAL OPERATIONS
(Twelfth Air Force): In Italy, weather restricts operations during the night of 21/22 Jan to armed reconnaissance by 5 A-20s; the A-20s bomb communications targets in the Po Valley. During the day B-25s hit bridges at Rovereto and Lavis, destroy a bridge at Pontetidone, and blast a railroad fill at San Michele all' Adige, and supply dump at Cremona; fighters and fighter-bombers concentrate on communications in the same area as the medium bombers, destroying 1 bridge, inflicting 36 rail cuts, hitting fuel and ammunition dumps, and destroying and damaging many vehicles and much railroad rolling stock, mostly in Milan area.

The above is from

http://www.usaaf.net/chron/index.htm

That link can be found on this website in the "Sticky" 'Archive Sites' thread then see under Bernard.

Hope this helps.

Alex

Re: Missions of 15. USAAF on January 21st, 1945
 

325th Fighter Group (Checkertails), 15th Air Force

Mission Report No. 181 21 January 1945

18 P-51s of the 317th FS, 18 P-51s of the 318th FS, & 18 P-51s of the 319th FS took off this base at 0911 hours. 9 P-51s returned early: 7 mechanical, 2 escort. 45 P-51s provided PTW escort for B-17s of the 5th Wing attacking Lobau O/R and Vienna Schwechat O/R, Austria, from 1210 to 1230 hours at 29,000 feet. R/V was 58 minutes early. Bombers were approximately 25 minutes late at target. Early R/V was probably due to bombers being late. 45 P-51s down at base 1445 hours.

Cordially, Art Fiedler

Re: Missions of 15. USAAF on January 21st, 1945
 

Kurtl.
Here are some losses.
I have copy of Intops summary with the details of all missions and targets of 15af somewhere. Will dig it out for you in my files later on. If I forget, contact me offboard;)

losses:
MACR date a/c serial F?BG pilot crash location cause nickname of a/c
11538 1/21/1945 P38 42-67898 1
11748 1/21/1945 P38 44-25039 1
11747 1/21/1945 P38 44-24195 14 S. Walters Lunz a.See, AU
11541 1/21/1945 P51 42-106440 332
11540 1/21/1945 P51C 42-103454 332 100 A.L. Young Opatovice, CZ mech.fail. "Daisy Mae"
11542 1/21/1945 B17 44-6606 2 20 Notheis HU
11539 1/21/1945 B17 44-6199 483 816 Prescott HU, Kiskunmajsa
11273 ? 1/21/1945 B17 44-6423 483 840 Crosmann
11387 1/21/1945 B17 44-6454 483 816 Cunningham HU, Gyor


Regards

Re: Missions of 15. USAAF on January 21st, 1945
 

Hello Kurtl:

Information about the activities (mission, losses) of the 1st Fighter Group on 21 January 1945 is available via the following link:

http://www.1stfighter.org/history/1945.html

Not a lot, but it should be one piece of the jigsaw puzzle.

Regards

Don (Boomerang)