Luftwaffe's missions on Jan. 21st, 1944

[mayfair35]

Gentlemen:
I am not sure exactly what is meant by the statement that the 15th AF was not in action on 21 Jan 1944 as my group, the 325th FG, flew two fighter sweeps on that day. The one against Florence resulted in claims of 4 FW-190s. The other fighter sweep against Rome had no encounters. Perhaps the original intent was for action over Germany? Our missions were obviously in Italy when we were flying the P-47s, but the 15th AF was in action that day.

I also do not know about any German response on the 21st of Jan 1945 as we did not encounter any opposition on that mission, and I have already posted that mission information. However, I can assure you that on the 20th of January 1945, I/JG301, II/JG301, and at least one pilot from I/JG302 were up in strength. Another source told me that JG302 merged with JG301 on this day. This same source also told me that in 1945, the record keeping of the Luftwaffe was substandard which is of course understandable.
Cordially, Art Fiedler