High Stake

When the stake was big enough, the decimated Luftwaffe was still willing to take terrific losses, the German pilot was still willing to gamble his life against overwhelming odds. This week 200 German interceptors rose to battle a U.S. fleet of 1,100 heavy bombers and 700 fighters over the Reich's largest still-active natural oil refinery, at Misburg. In the fight, 122 German planes (61%) were shot down. But they drove a hard bargain before the fight had ended. Thirty-seven U.S. bombers and 13 fighters were reported missing. Percentagewise (3%), the U.S. crew loss was low, but of some 11,700 U.S. airmen who went into the battle, some 380 went down, to death or captivity.

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