Air operation
Operation Bodenplatte
1 January 1945 · Allied airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands and France
On 1 January 1945 the Luftwaffe launched Operation Bodenplatte ('Baseplate') against Allied air bases in Belgium, the Netherlands and France; it had been planned for 16 December 1944 but delayed by bad weather. The attack achieved tactical surprise, though only 11 of 34 Gruppen attacked on time and with surprise. A detailed tally gives 305 Allied aircraft destroyed and 190 damaged, most of them on the ground, while Germany lost 143 pilots killed or missing, 70 captured and 21 wounded, the largest single-day loss for the Luftwaffe. It failed to gain air superiority even temporarily and was the Luftwaffe's last large-scale offensive of the war.
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- [1]Operation Bodenplatte
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