Strafing losses JG 11, Gelnhausen, 5th Sept. 1944

[Christer Bergström]

In fact, there were 40 P-38s and 29 P-47s attacking. Yeah, that was a whole lotta airplanes strafing the same field. Anyway, these obviously belonged to 56th FG and 479 FG, and they claimed 132 aircraft destroyed on the ground.

Due to Prien (“JG 1/11”, p. 1258) 24 Fw 190s from I./JG 11 were destroyed on the ground at Gelnhausen.

These 70 American fighters encountered a single German fighter in the air, but this German pilot was fortunate to evade their attacks for 30 minutes by repeatedly seeking refuge into clouds.

Only 55th FG came across any other German planes in the air on 5 September 1944 - and not only German!! First they spotted a group of primary trainers and claimed to have shot down, or caused to crash, 17. Then they attacked three Bf 109s and claimed to have shot down two. Later they were happy to learn that they had shot down only one - since it proved to be a Swiss Bf 109, over Swiss territory.