JG 301 mission on 17 Dec 44

[Don Caldwell]

Hi Hal --

Thanks for the useful confirmation of the foul weather over western Europe. I'm inclining to your conclusion that Reschke is mistaken. But in which sense? Was the 17 Dec 44 mission flown against the 15th AF, which means that all of his details WRT direction after takeoff, location of combats & crashes, etc. are incorrect? Or does he simply have his date wrong, and he is in fact describing a combat (on another date) against a small formation of 8th AF B-24s and their escorts of P-51s (and P-47s?). I'm having a hard time finding a suitable 8th AF combat match, but I'm hampered by the fact that Reschke is the primary source of data for many of the missions he describes, so there's no independent source to match him up against.

Horrido!

Don