The Luftwaffe's New Year's Day attack on Allied airfields in the West, was just one part of the German's December offensive in the West. These were meticulously planned operations that also including sending submarines into the English Channel to disrupt the Allied supply chain, and the launching of heavy rocket and missile attacks on harbors and their installations.

Bodenplatte was in fact an integral part of a much larger combined-forces attack. The German High command knew that an offensive in the West would not be possible as long as the Allies had air-superiority over the battlefields. That is why the offensive commenced during the period with historically bad weather and thus making flying impossible.

The Ardennes Offensive ­ "Wacht am Rhein" ­ went ahead as planned on 16 December 1944 until the weather cleared up on 23 December. As the might of the Allies' combined air forces attacked the German spearheads and supporting supply lines, the offensive faltered and thus gave the Americans the opportunity to go on the counter-offensive.

Then the Germans struck the Allied air bases on 1 January 1945, and suddenly the Allied tactical air forces disappeared from the front-lines. Pierre Clostermann, the French fighter ace then flying in the RAF, wrote in his memoirs about the attack: "This well planned and brilliantly executed operation could, if it had become known, been a major blow to public opinion. The American censors and the shocked press services tried to present this attack as a major Allied victory and published absolutely fantastic figures, figures that were even three months later joked about among the RAF Squadrons."

Clostermann also estimated Allied losses to be a staggering 800 aircraft this day. This number is perhaps a bit inflated but counting the losses on the individual airbases that were attacked the total losses were at least 550 aircraft, perhaps higher. Crippling losses for sure, and especially when considering the USAAF's low supply of replacement aircraft due to the heavy winter storms over the Atlantic.

Three days later when German ground troops had caught their breath and brought forward supplies and reinforcements, the Americans were beaten back with heavy losses. Such was the German's resilience and aggressiveness that General Patton wrote in his diary, after his 3rd Army was forced to retreat for the first time ever: "We can still lose this war."

The situation was critical, and with the lack of attack aircraft to counter the major German offensive, Churchill was forced to beg Stalin for help. He pleaded that the Soviets should advance the date of the Red Army's planned offensive on the Eastern Front in order to give the Western troops some breathing space.

On this day, 1 January 1945, I./JG 26 together with III./JG 54 attacked the air field at Grimbergen. The fifteen-minute-long attack claimed four heavy bombers, one twin-engine bomber and one Mustang destroyed together with twelve trucks, and two tanker vehicles.

Also, two hangars were set on fire with a number of others seriously damaged, and one anti-aircraft position was silenced. In total I./JG 26 would lose seven pilots killed and missing with another three taken prisoners, with four of the nine Fw 190 Ds lost due to their own flak.

One of the pilots taken prisoner this day was Obgfr. Dieter Krägeloh who was hit by a Spitfire. With his propeller shot to pieces he was forced to kill the engine, and because he was too low to bail-out he made a successful belly-landing in an orchard.

Soon he was pulled from his machine and being wounded transported to a British hospital. Later he would be taken to England where he made a complete recovery.

'Yellow 13' is a typical Mimetall-produced Dora displaying the camouflage colors and pattern characteristic of this firm: RLM 81/82 fuselage upper surfaces, greenish-tan RLM 76 undersides and fuselage, and RLM 81/76 wing upper surfaces. Interestingly its Werknummer is positioned at the base of the fin with photos of several other MME machines displaying it in this location.

This profie was published in my Profile book No 14 as profile No 101.