[HGabor]

NOT far off from the legs of the mission at all! US bombers almost always flew to Lake Balaton first, then turned to the target directions, including Vienna for several reasons:

1. Lake Balaton was the best navigational point in the region, well visible from almost as far as from Italy :-))))))

2. Going to Lake Balaton the Americans could avoid many large flak-zones of the ground AAA defence.

3. Flying to Lake Balaton the German fighter defence did not know -until the very last minutes- the plan and the daily targets of the Americans, who therefore could confuse and delay the organized actions of the opponent fighter forces. From Lake Balaton all main targets in the area, including Vienna and Budapest were just a few minutes away (in different directions), so Axis fighters had not much time left to catch effectively the bombers after the IP before they reached the actual targets after their turn at the lake.

4. Flying to Lake Balaton the Americans had to cross the partisan held area of Yugoslavia, which - especially on the way back - was critical for the crews of the damaged planes returning from Vienna, Budapest, etc.

Returning from Vienna over the high Austrian Alps straight down to Italy would have been a very risky nonsense. They always turned to SE and used the Lake Balaton(-W) route over western Hungary. So battles at lake Balaton were almost always regular part of the Vienna raids, just like on June 16, 1944, which, btw, resulted huge - and well reconstructed - losses on both sides.

Cheers,
Gabor