Description: AIRBORNE ESCORT MISSION

Notes: P-38, P-47 and P-51 Fighter Groups took part. A mix of 514 P-38s, P-47s and P-51s provide escort of the First Allied Airborne Army parachute and glider drop of 20,000 troops into Holland to secure the advance toward the Zider Zee for the British second Army. The First Airborne Corps consisting of the British First Airborne Division ( with Polish Parachute Brigade) and the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The fighters also strafe flak batteries and troop concentrations. The flak is intense, but the fighters manage to destroy 107 flak positions. In other developments the US Seventh Army's French II Corps makes contact with the US Third Army's French 2nd Bd Armored Division near Bains-les-Bains, France, closing the line of the NORMANDY invasion with that of the DRAGOON invasion of Southern France. Claims include 1-0-0 on the ground.