461st plaque

461st Bombardment Group (H)

April 1944 May 1944 June 1944 July 1944 August 1944 September 1944 October 1944 November 1944 December 1944 January 1945 February 1945 March 1945 April 1945 May 1945

Missions

A textual summary of each mission flown by the 461st is provided for the months shown at the top of this page. In addition, there are some links to bomb strike photos where these were available. For some missions, you will also see what was called in the 461st, poop sheets. It might be helpful for the novice to understand how missions were done at least in the 461st Bombardment Group. The Fifteenth Air Force Headquarters assigned targets to the various bomb wings the day before a mission. The bomb wing then developed some details about that mission. Some examples of what the bomb wing would document include the targets assigned to the other bomb wings so there wouldn't be a problem when so many aircraft were flying at the same time, how the bomb groups would form up for the mission, what the route would be to the target and return, as well as other details about the mission. This information would be sent to the bomb groups as Operations Orders. Each bomb group would take this information and develop a plan for carrying out the mission. Specifically, the 461st would assign crews and aircraft to the mission. The crew list would be posted on the bulletin board the evening before the mission. At a briefing the morning of a mission, the pilots would be handed a typed-up sheet with all the details for the day's mission. This typed-up sheet was called a poop sheet. Crews were told to destroy these after a mission to keep them from falling into enemy hands. Most were destroyed, but not all. As a result, some of these documents have survived and have been included for some of the missions. Following the mission, the crews were debriefed and the bomb group sent a report back to the bomb wing with the results. This report was called the Operations Report.

Summarizing the above, every mission consisted of the Operations Order, the poop sheet and the Operations Report. On the 49th Bomb Wing, you will find the first and last of these three documents. The middle document will be following the mission’s summary.

Be aware that a lot of these documents have been lost in time and are not present.

Many thanks to Mr. George Dickie (Former Editor of The 461st Liberaider) for his work in compiling the mission summaries that are posted here.  The textual description of each mission is listed for each month at the left.

In addition, I've created Mission Summaries that shows a statistical summary of the missions flown by the 461st.

First 50 Missions

First 100 missions

Some people may still have questions about the missions flown by the 461st Bombardment Group (H) so I have decided to provide some additional information here.

The 461st flew a total of 223 missions.  Of these, seven were supply missions flown during September 1944 in support of General Patton's move through southern France.  Of the 216 combat missions flown, 47 missions saw 813 enemy fighters.

An average of 29 bombers were dispatched on each mission with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 43.

727 personnel were listed as Missing In Action (MIA).

123 personnel were listed as Killed In Action (KIA).

A total of 6,168 aircraft were sent over enemy territory in the 216 missions flown by the 461st.  Of these, 811 were damaged.  5,521 successfully returned to base.  79 were shot down and 568 had mechanical issues and returned to base without completing the mission.

Total Missions Flown by Country
Missions Country
65 Austria
50 Italy
22 Yugoslavia
21 Germany
20 France
18 Romania
14 Hungary
3 Greece
3 Czechoslovakia

Missions Flown by Target Type
Missions Target Type
76 Railroad marshalling yard
46 Oil
16 Airfield
15 Railroad bridge
14 Enemy troop
8 Aircraft factory
7 Supplies (non-combat)
3 Submarines
3 Artillery
2 Harbor
2 Visduct
2 Highway bridges
2 Railroad Station
2 Railroad Viaduct
2 Repair Field
2 Ship yard
2 Aluminum plant
2 Truck factory
2 Railroad junction
1 Ammunition depot
1 Ammunition factory
1 Electrical grid
1 Ferry slip
1 Ordinance depot
1 Small arms manufacturer
1 Steel mill
1 Iron ore processing plant

Multiple Missions to the Same Target
Missions Target Target Type
8 Moosbierbaum Oil Refinery, Austria Oil
7 Supply Mission, Lyon, France Supplies (non-combat
6 Graz M/Y, Austria Railroad marshalling yard
5 Bucharest, Chitila M/Y, Romania Railroad marshalling yard
5 Munich West M/Y, Germany Railroad marshalling yard
5 Vienna Florisdorf Oil Refinery, Austria Oil
4 Blechhammer South Oil Refinery, Germany Oil
3 Belgrad Zemun A/D, Yugoslavia Airfield
3 Vienna Vosendorf Oil Refinery, Austria Oil
2 Augsburg M/Y, Germany Railroad marshalling yard
2 Ferrara RR Bridge, Italy Railroad Bridge
2 Genoa Gun Positions, Italy Artillery
2 Giurgiu Oil Storage, Romania Oil
2 Hegyeshalom M/Y, Hungary Railroad marshalling yard
2 Korneuburg Oil Refinery, Austria Oil
2 Linz Benzol Plant, Austria Oil
2 Ora M/Y, Italy Railroad marshalling yard
2 Sarajevo Ali Pasin Most M/Y, Yugoslavia Railroad marshalling yard
2 Sara East RR Bridge, Belgrade, Yugoslavia Railroad Bridge
2 Troop Concentrations, Luso, Italy Enemy Troops
2 Troop Concentrations, near Luso, Italy Enemy Troops
2 Vienna Central Repair Shops, Austria Repair Field
2 Vienmna Penzinger M/Y, Austria Railroad marshalling yard
2 Vienna South Station, Austria Railroad Station
2 Wiener Neustadt M/Y, Austria Railroad marshalling yard