[Mark R.]

Agree with Graham. However, I have not seen US AAA units spread throughout miscellaneous units whilst they were on the move. With more requests for support than available assets, the bulk of the US anti-aircraft units were allotted to the protection of artillery units. I think most of the other units relied on their organic weapons (seems like almost every vehicle mounted something in those days) and immediate action drills (quickly moving off road on either side to avoid a densely clustered target) served to limit amount of damage by Jabos. The worst US loss to strafing German fighters (that I have found so far) occurred in early February 1943 when all of the howitzers and prime movers of C Battery, 33d FA were destroyed by strafing Bf-109s. I believe there were early M-15s (water cooled .50 cals x 2 and 1x 37mm cannon combined mount) involved in the Tunisian campaign. No quad 50s yet.