[CENTURION]

Dear Heuser,

thank you very much for you reply.

I was expecting more losses for the JG2 because of the high number of American claims (and usually they are quite accurate)! May it be a case of overclaiming?
Infact, according to my reconstruction, 11 P47 of the 412nd FS @ 10:20 at 10000 feet were bounced by more than 50 Me109 and Fw190 in the Bonn area. The Americans claimed 10 Fw190 and 1 Me109 for the loss of 4 P47 (1/Lt. George Gautier MIA, 1/lt. Robert Wierdsma MIA, 1/Lt. William Tucker who came down in allied territory WIA, 1 P47 declared Cat. E at the base). Probably they were in combat with I./JG11 that claimed 4 P47 at the same time and place for the loss of two Fw190 and I./JG2 and II./JG2 that claimed 1 P47 each.
I'm not sure the 161st rcn Sq. of the 363rd TRG, that claimed 2 Me109 @ 10:35 6 miles east of Koblenz, was involved in the same fight.

I./JG77 was in combat at the same time but further south, near Frankfurt, because they claimed one P47 @ 10:30 between Budingen and Bindsachsen. They were probably in combat with the 377th FS of the 362nd FG that claimed 3 Me109 @ 11:10 near "Godern" (probably Gedern, that is 15 km north of Budingen) for no MACR losses.

The following combat occurred in the afternoon, when II./JG2 claimed 1 P47 @ 15:38 noth-east of Hachenberg and I./JG77 claimed 2 P47 @ about 15:45 near Westerwald for the loss of 3 Me109 near Bonn. They were probably in combat with the 36th FG (time of combat not known), that lost 2/Lt. William Young POW that came down south of Dortmund near Kalthof (30 km NE of Hachenberg) and 2/Lt. Herbert Carr POW that came down near Oberwesterwald. It is interesting to note that there are no American claims at this time; is it possible that the 3 Me109 were lost in the following fight (described below)?

Infact about one hour later, 12 P47 of the 388th FS of the 365th FG were bounced by some Fw190 and Me109. The American pilots claimed 2 Fw190 (probable) and 3 Fw190 damaged @ 16:40 between Bonn and Koln for the loss of 4 P47 (Lt. C. Shoup, Lt. R. Hunter, Lt. R. Baker all MIA and Lt. R. Longley, crash landing at the base, Cat. E). They were in combat with 10./JG27 that claimed 2 P47 for no losses and II./JG6 that claimed 6 P47.

Were there other German units involved in these combats against the 9th Air Force?



Best Regards
Marco