Highlights of Day by Day Air Operations
1 August 1944

On this first day of XIX TAC operations, unfavorable weather kept the fighters grounded until well into the afternoon. Armored-column cover was so arranged as to maintain eight fighter-bombers over each armored division, the eight-plane flights being relieved every hour. Planes and tanks worked closely together, talking to each other by VHF radio.

While General Patton had enjoined XIX TAC not to blow up bridges, it might have been expected that the enemy would do so in order to retard pursuit, but so headlong was the Germans' panicky withdrawal that they had no time to conduct any such demolition. Thus the leading American armor often outran its communications, and the Army's latest information on the location of its forward elements frequently came from reconnaissance or fighter-bomber pilots. To make the most of this source of information, XIX TAC pilots were instructed to include in their reports, whenever possible, the point at which the head of the column was last observed.

In 10 missions of 147 sorties, 22 tons of bombs were dropped. No enemy aircraft were encountered and no losses were sustained.