Martin, Indeed! To refer to the Jan. 11 mission once more; Gen. Robert Travis was leading the 1st BD flying lead with the 94th BG (if my memory serves me right he was the 94th CO at that time). When the recall was received, he elected to continue to the target (they were a mere 25 miles away anyway). The 94-ers were somewhat alarmed to see the BG's behind them turn around and leaving them alone (without fighter support!). What the men in the 94th did not take kindly to was the fact that this lone BG had to do a 360 over the target (Braunschweig) because the lead plane failed to see the target, while apparently all other crews in the BG did! I read several accounts and corresponded with veterans who attested to this. One navigator described the FW plant as half the size of manhattan and he was appalled when he heard that Travis decided to "go around". It is one of the few times I heard (read) profound profanity in the accounts of these veterans, who are usually extremely kind.

This was made all the worse because the men could see dozens of German planes (mostly rocket firing zwei mots) getting ready to attack after the bombers had left the target area and the heavy flak.

Indeed, no less than 9 94 planes were shot down and two of the three 447 BG planes that had failed to find their own BG and tagged along with the 94th. The 447th lost its CO in one of these planes.

No wonder that the 94-ers were somewhat peeved with Gen. Travis, who, BTW, became the CO of 447 BG later in the war. Several 94 vets I corresponded with asked me if i knew what had happened to Travis. I guess they assumed some kind of action might have been taken against him, but they were surprised to hear that this mission did nothing against his career.

Erich, for a FG as distinguished as the 354th I am amazed that there is not a fat, definitive history yet. Do you know any reason for this? In fact, this FG won the only MOH in the ETO for fighter pilots. And guess when that was won? yes, on January 11, 1944!

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