S3 Series

March 3, 1945.

The 4thFG rolled P-51Ds from F106 and climbed to the Rendezvous point.
We climbed to RP location and alt then turned back to find the buffs who had rolled late. Tower radioed that the Buffs were having engine trouble.

At T+20 we located the Buff Group over England and set up our escort positions. We took a Heading of 090 towards France and continued to climb.

Approximately 40 miles before Target we encountered an NME scout soon followed by several 109's. The 4th dropped external tanks and engaged the NME, shooting down several.
Some of the 4th got stuck in a dogfight while the buffs continued on to target with only a few escorts. There were a few B-24's that took damage and some lost an engine. I believe we lost a Heavy or two but waiting for reports to confirm.

The Buffs turned N to target and continued to be harassed by a few NME fighters, now both 109s and 190s. Several NME planes were shot down by the B-24's sharpshooting tail gunners.

The buffs dropped on their intended target and proceeded NW to the next target. Again several of the 4th got caught up in dogfights while the rest of the squad pressed on with the Buffs.

With all ordinance expended, the B-24's made a turn to RTB to the West with a few stragglers. Again several NME fighters harassed the Buffs as the now split up 4th made a desperate attempt to protect the heavies and get them home.

The Buffs made a turn SW at the 6.6.x with 2-3 NME fighters win pursuit. The remaining 4th who gotten split up from the group rendezvoused at the 5.5.5 grid and helped run off the remaining NME.

The B-24s and 4th FG landed at F24 in France and stood down for the night.

Fun night. <S>

Nookyb

I'll just add ours here to simplify reading aar's, hope ya don't mind!!
<S>
The 5 fighter pilots of the 23rd FG taxied out in brand new P51D Mustangs all fueled up for the long trip to come. We rolled 106 at T=0 and proceeded to grab air as the buffs ran a racetrack North and South grabn and forming up.

We rendezvoused with the Bombers as they headed out over the North Sea off the UK coast, NE of London. The bombers stayed N off enemy radar as long as possible before their run in to the Hamburg target area. Those clouds over the North Sea can really hinder staying with the buff group at times but we managed to stay on station fairly well. Thanks to sleepy for giving the escorts headings of the buff group. Comms are key to good escorting, especially in bad/cloudy weather.

There were a few enemy fighters encountered over the N Sea. If memory serves me right the 352nd were with the bombers as well when the enemy first showed and must have engaged them as there were no more threats until just about landfall, well down the river anyhow. There were multiple singles as well as a few pairs of enemy fighters attacking or stalking the buffs from there on, until otw home and over 100 miles west of the target area.

We lost a few airframes on the run-in which left us with 3 pilots still around the buffs as they split up and hit many targets then extended for another pass or even two for some I believe. We did the best we could fending off repeated attempts and some successful attacks on our buffs. Just as the 2 that lost airframes re joined for reception escort there were some low altitude fights/chases going on.

I didn't witness some of the action so I am probably missing somethings.

I believe we gave more than we got, but not sure.

I should have listened to my old CO’s advise about how itchy the fingers can become on bomber gunners.

All in all a fun night.

A long boring flight for sometime then boom, some terror, some fun, some cussing, planes burning, smoking and missing parts. Then quiet, then more threats which seemed to last longer than usual during escort duty. I’m just glad they weren’t organized and attacked in singles or pairs.

I want to thank the Southern Bomb Group for taking the early and probably heavier attacks which kept less Germans from coming up North to us.

<S>