21st January 2006, 15:45
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 19
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Re: Huge Luftwaffe Victories over USAAF?
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Originally Posted by Dénes Bernád
A similarly heavy loss of P.38s occurred also on June 10, 1944, when the 1st and 82nd F.G.'s targeted the Ploesti oilfields, in Rumania.
In an effort to inflict decisive damage to the oilfields, 46 bomb-carrying P-38Js of the 82nd FG, escorted by a similar number of long-range Lightning fighters of the 1stFG, took off from Foggia, in Italy. When everything was over, Rumanian and German fighters and flak claimed 51 victories, double the actual number of P-38s actually lost in this ill-fated mission. Nevertheless, the loss of two-dozen USAAF aircraft (one quarter of the attacking formation) represented a tremendous victory for the defenders (Germans and their Axis allies).
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I have heard about this mission. I think there were ~30 claims by the p-38s. Does anyone know how many of these claims were confirmed? Did the attack cause any real damage to justify the losses? |