Sorry Gents,
I'm a day late on this report, haven't been feeling well
This is the After Action Report as it happened 60 years ago yesterday, as taken from "Beware the Thunderbolt, The 56th Fighter Group in World War II" by David R. McLaren.
56th Fighter Group January 10, 1945
VIII Fighter Command Flight Operation 1503-A
A snow storm that swept over England the night before caused all sorts of headaches, incidents, and accidents in attempting to get the missions off to strike airfields and transportation targets just thirty miles from the front lines. Nevertheless, nine hundred heavies were able to bomb effectively. Fighter Command sent out but three hundred P-51's and P-47's on a mixed-bag of missions.
Lt. Col. Dade was to lead the mission, but he had to abort right after the 0936 takeoff and command was passed to Capt. Michael Jackson of the 62nd Fighter Squadron. Right after Dade turned back, Flight Officer Walter Sharbo, 62nd FS, had to belly in at Clacton. He was uninjured, but the mission continued on a downhill trend, as there were a total of seventeen early returns out of the fifty-four P-47's attempting to compose the sweep over Koblenz.
As the Group passed over Cologne, they were 7,000 feet below a force of B-17s that were in the process of bombing. Capt. Michael Gladych's 61st FS evaded the falling bombs, but then the German flak gunners concentrated their fire upon the P-47's instead of the Flying Forts, inflicting minor damage upon some of the Jugs and leaving the heavies Scot free. On return, two pilots had to put down on the continent and four more at Mauston with flak damage, but no one was hurt.
