March
1945
This would be
the second busiest month of the war for the 446th, after only June,
'44. Good weather and the rapidly advancing Allied ground troops made
for almost daily missions. The devastated German military was not able
to defend their cities as they once were, and flak and fighter support
dwindled, reducing the number of 446th planes lost. More ground personnel
were assigned to the infantry and sent to the continent, and many former
ground troops were reassigned to the 446th. There was a drawing held,
with the winners getting 48 hour passes to Paris, including transportation
in converted B-24's.
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here for all photos for March 1945.
March
1: Augsburg
9 planes bombed the Messerschmidt plant through cloud cover.
March
2: Magdeburg
The group initially decided not to bomb the primary target, the synthetic
oil plant, due to the heavy cloud cover, but the lead plane found a
hole in the clouds on the way to the secondary, and made it's way back
to the primary with the group in tow. They got it. Flak was intense.
March
3: Magdeburg
The final mission to Magdeburg ended successfully, as excellent results
on the synthetic oil plant was reported. The group was met by intense
flak and 4 ME 262 enemy fighter jets.
March
4: Donaueschingen
The marshalling yards were attacked with unobserved results.
March
5: Harburg
11 planes attacked the oil refinery through clouds with unobserved results.
March
7: Bielefeld
The group had previously knocked out 2 of 3 rail viaducts. This mission
was to the third, and the RAF finished it off a week later.
March
8: Betzdorf
18 planes attacked the marshalling yards with unobserved results.
March
9: Rheine
The marshalling yards were set ablaze. Photo
March
10: Paderborn
33 planes bombed the marshalling yards with unobserved results.
March
11: Kiel
32 planes hit the submarine yards with unobserved results.
March
12: Swinemunde
The group flew to this Baltic sea city to aid the Russian ground troops
there. Navy and port installations were hard hit, with excellent results
reported.
March
14: Remagen
Marshalling yards near the Remagen bridge were hit with mixed results;
1 squadron had poor results, 1 good and 1 excellent.
March
15: Zossen
The German General Staff headquarters were bombed, but with poor results.
Photo
March
17: Hannover
19 planes attacked the armament works with unknown results.
March
18: Henningsdorf
The Borsig Locomotive works was the target. the group missed, but did
damage to other industrial buildings in the area.
March
19: Baumenheim
A jet fighter components plant was bombed with fair results.
March
20: Hemmingstedt
An oil refinery was hit hard, with large fires reported.
March
20: Ahlorn
Good results were reported in the bombing of an airfield.
March
21: Essen
Intense flak met the group at an airfield, where they achieved good
results.
March
22: Kitzingen
Excellent results in almost perfect weather were reported on this mission,
to an airfield. Photo
March
23: Munster
20 planes bombed the marshalling yards with very good results reported.
March
24: Wessel
The group dropped supplies to ground troops on this low-level mission.
Flying at 300 to 700 feet, the planes were met by small arms and light
artillery fire and 3 were shot down. "Queen of Angels" (42-50735)
went down, killing 8 crewmen with 1 more returning safely. 2 unnamed
planes (42-50545, 41-28814) also crashed, with 6 crewmen killed and
the remainder returning safely. Photos
March
24: Stormede
The airfield was attacked with good to excellent results.
March
30: Wilhelmshaven
The submarine assembly plant was hit with excellent results.
March
31: Brunswick
The armament works was bombed through heavy clouds.
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