JG 301 mission on 17 Dec 44

[Don Caldwell]

Hi Nick --

None of the "official" data mention any sort of mission by JG 301 vs the 15th AF (or anyone else) on 17 Dec, and Reschke's description of a mission to the west against heavy bombers is up against the Allied records, which state that the 8th AF heavies didn't fly. "23 Dec" has been proposed as the true date of this mission, but if Reschke's 1055 takeoff time is correct, catching the 8th AF, which bombed Ardennes commo targets at 1230, & returning to Stendal, which his memoir implies, would have required an impossibly-long 3+ hour mission, and his stated encounter locations are nowhere near the Ardennes. (Plus, the B-24s reported no e/a sightings.) Another possibility is that "17 Dec" was not a separate mission at all, but should be conflated with 24 Dec or 31 Dec; Reschke's memory might have played him tricks, and split out part of one of those missions as a distinct set of events.

Gad, this is fun.

Don