Merseburg Raid of 21 Nov 1944 and JG 301 by Eric Brown

Merseburg Raid of 21 Nov 1944 and JG 301

by Eric Brown

The following is an extract from two e-mails sent by Eric Brown, who is researching JG 301 for a forthcoming book he is co-authoring. His comments were prompted by commetary in various 398th articles as to whether the Abbeville gang was involved on the Merseburg, Germany raid. On this mission, five 603rd Squadron Ships went down.

Merseburg Raid of 21 Nov 1944 and JG 301

by Eric Brown

In regards to the recollections of the Merseburg raid on 21 November 1944, I would like to draw your attention that the 398th BG was attacked from the front by JG 301 not the Abbeville gang which is JG 26. JG 26 did not fly on the 21st of November 1944.

My cousin who was a Lutwaffe fighter pilot flew with JG 301 and the 21st of November 44 was his first mission flown. He was killed in action on the next mission that being near Misburg on 26th of November 1944.

JG 301 actually attacked by chance as ground control was not as good as they had hoped and the leader of JG 301's formation brought their Fw 190's to attack from the front quite by mistake as the training that the JG 301 had done the last two months was to attack ALL US bomber formations from the rear.

I have the JG 301 Geschwader report in English as well as in German and it is somewhat confusing from the pilots but it makes it quite clear what happened when the attack formed up. The III./JG 301 gruppe attacked the 398th from the front as I said and the attack even from that uncertain viewpoint was unclear to all the pilots as the leader of the Gruppe who set things up was also confused as to what to do, his experience had been in the past and in other units in the summer of 1944 to attack all US bomber formations from the rear.

If I can help further on the Luftwaffe side of things please contact me.

Best regards

Eric Brown