JG 301 on 17 December 1944

[Jochen Prien]

Frank, Rainer,

I'm awfully sorry for creating some confusion - you are of course right, there were no P-38s involved in this case, just the B-24s as well as P-47s and P-51s as escorts.

A 15th USAAF raid can be ruled out then both because of the presence of P-47s and of course of the combat area which was too far north for a 15th USAAF raid.

On LRG it has been suggested that this may have been a small formation of B-24s en route from England to Italy in daylight on December 17th, the unit being transferred to the 15th USAAF and heading for Brindisi; apparently they suffered no losses and it is not known whether they had a fighter escort.

So I'll have to dig further.

Joerg - Reschke's mentioning of many names that vanished for good from the ranks in those days has no direct relation to the events taking place on the 17th but seems more a general observation. But thanks anyway.

KR

Jochen Prien