New Years Eve, December 31st 1944
December 1944. England was experiencing the worst winter in fifty-four years. Across the Channel, deep in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge raged on. The American GI's now had the added problem of dealing with German soldiers posing as 'fake' GI's. Three Germans had already been captured and executed by a firing squad while fifteen more awaited the same fate. The Eighth Air Force flew a mission on the 31st December and again on the 1st January, New Years Day, dropping leaflets in France, Germany and Belgium. Meanwhile, the American bombers of the Ninth Air Force were grounded by bad weather. American GI's in the Ardennes Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons New Years Eve 1944 saw more than 900 B-17's launched against targets across Germany. 3rd Bomb Division crews returned to the oil production centres of Hamburg on a bombing mission but they suffered heavy losses. Having experienced particularly heavy flak, the bombers dropped their bombs and t