[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks John. Well that is fairly good reason why Beyer was buried in Netherlands, and I wonder why I did not think to it at all...

From what I found so far, I don't think that B-26s went so far southeast as Valenciennes/southern Belgium and 56th FG claims are in the same area and time frame that Beyer's loss, so were possibly involved, but I don't have all claim details for the USAAF for this day.

With a seriously escorted heavy bomber force in the same area, I doubt German fighters will have attacked B-26s, so my best guess is that the B-26s claims are someone's mistake, either in the original German documents or later.

With the claims of IV./JG 3 made 40 minutes before any other, I wonder if the IV./JG 3 was not used to attack the Allied escorts to make them drop their belly tanks early. III./JG 1 based in Volkel was given later in February such orders, a break of the usual German tactic to concentrate on bombers.