Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Beale
That’s a lot of operations and losses to cover—you’re almost asking for someone to write you a book (I know, I’ve done it). The essentials:
Residual presence of Stab and II./JG 77 until early September 1944.
All Italian units were grounded by the Germans from 25 August through into October.
All Italian units forcibly grounded on 25 August 1944 by the Germans.
2° Gruppo Caccia activated toward the end of October (three Squadriglie of Bf 109s).
1° Gruppo Caccia returned from training in Germany in January 1945 (three Squadriglie of Bf 109s).
3° Gruppo Caccia was training in Holzkirchen on the Bf 109 and the personnel returned to Italy in the final weeks but the unit never became operational.
Operations by the Italian fighters were sporadic thanks to the very low amounts of fuel allocated to Italy (the bulk of stocks had been withdrawn to Germany in October 1944) and to bad weather.
Disastrous encounter with USAAF P-47s on 2 April. Last mission (IIRC) on 19 April.
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Hi, Nick!
A book, has in fact been written, but it's at my folks place in Corfu until at least next summer, so I can't get my hands on it. Given that you have narrowed things down substantially, I simply need to know if the Allies' force of light/medium twin engine bombers ran into trouble with the ANR while flying unescorted missions over Northern Italy, from October 44 to April 45. What little I recall is that air to air engagements were rather 'sparse' from late 44 onwards (at least in Italy ), due to, like you said, low fuel stocks, bad weather and interference from the Germans, so there can't be too many combats that took place.
Hoping you can still help me.
Thanks, ahead of time.