[drgondog]

FO does stand for Field Order. There may be a Wing Order (W.O) although that was much more common in 8th AF than 9th.

Muliti part Field orders were common in late 1944.

The 1732 A for example would be Part A of Field Order 1732 (which in case of 8th AF may have been at least two or more major Task Forces).

When the Field order was broken down it may have called for two squadrons to execute Group A assignment and another Squadron re-inforced by a couple of flights from the other two squadrons would fly Part B as Group B.

You would typically see a Red, Yellow and Blue Flight in each of the two Squadron in the Part A above, then a Red Yellow, Blue, Green from the third squadron and perhaps White and Purple flights in Part B.

In the B Group, the "White' would have been from one of the A Group squadrons and Purple from the other A Group squadron.

Many of these A and B Group combined efforts would put 60-72 fighters in the air instead of an ordinary three squadron, four flight each, mission with 48 as a desired number of effectives for the Group

From November 1944, the TO&E of the 8th and 9th AF Fighter Groups was far larger than early 1944.

Often the Groups would separate into two large forces of 30+ fighters in an "A" and B" Group to support two different missions under a different leader, including an occasional "C".

Bill