JG 301 on 17 December 1944

[Jochen Prien]

Nick, Frank,

many thanks for your quick responses which unfortunately only underline the problem - none of the targets mentioned in your posts lies anywhere near Lower Saxony. And why would a 15th USAAF formation venture that far North ?

So, any more clues ?

Best

Jochen

[Frank Olynyk]

Jochen,
As far as I can tell, 15th AF never bombed any of the major cities in Lower Saxony. The Wikipedia article on Lower Saxony lists the major cities of Lower Saxony, and none of them appear in the target index in Mahoney’s book. Göttingen is located approximately at 52° N, 9° E. 15th AF MACRs for this date give the Last Seen locations as between 46°N and 50°N, and 16°E and 18°E. Last Seen Times are from roughly 1200 to 1300, with later times being further south.

15th AF fighter claims go from 1145 to 1230, from 48°N to 50°N and 17°E to 19°E, by both P-38s and P-51s. Actual locations given are Blechhammer, Biata, Ratibor/Glewitz, Mahrisch-Ostrau, and Radosovce.

What are the times for the JG 301 claims? Do they match up with any of the above times? Are any of the JG 301 claims identifiable by aircraft serial?

The fact that JG 301 is claiming combats with P-38s and P-51s means that they have to be in combat with 15th AF, since 8th AF was not using P-38s by this time, and the RAF never did.

8th Fighter Command made no claims this date. All ETO claims are by 9th AF units, or 1st PTAF.

While American air crews were notorious for misidentifying their location over Europe/Germany, I find it hard to believe that German air crew would do the same.

So the problem is that if JG 301 is in combat with P-38s they must have been fighting 15th AF, but 15th AF never flew into Lower Saxony. It almost feels like you might be facing another 4./JG 27 situation. Or real bad German navigation.

Enjoy! (if you can)

Frank.