The enemy thrust out of the Weiden area toward Cham. Enemy armoured spearheads reached Regensburg. Increasing pressure toward the south from the Regensburg area. The enemy was able to extend his bridgehead at Dillingen … Following OKL’s transfer to the Southern Area, the Chief of the General Staff takes over command of all the Luftwaffe in this area.

(Luftwaffe General Staff situation report)

Early in the morning, two Me 26s of KG 51 were sent out on separate armed reconnaissances of the Dillingen area. The first took off at 0435 GMT and both had landed by 0528. They had attacked a vehicle column without observing the results and it appears from another source that neither was in the air for more than 25 minutes. These sorties seem to have confirmed that the previous night’s operations had left the bridge unscathed and they were supplemented by groups of two, three and four Bf 109s on reconnaissance of the same general area. According to the daily report from 7. Jagd Division, 24 Bf 109s drawn equally equally from JG 53 and EJG 1 bombed and strafed American movements around Dillingen–Holzheim–Höchstädt in seven waves from 0410–1110, encountering powerful anti-aircraft fire. The cost was one pilot dead, three missing and two injured along with one Bf 109 lost and three missing (D Battery of the 572nd AAA Battalion claimed three Messerschmitts over Dillingen). Further north, four Bf 109s from EJG 1 flew an armed reconnaissance around Schwandorf (SE Bamberg) from 1105–1200, again in the face of daunting AA fire which damaged two of the aircraft.

In a rare instance of realism, a unit thought to be 2./NAGr. 13 was ordered at 1600 to transfer its flying elements to Schleißheim for ‘final operations’ although the ground staff left behind were to be used as infantry. Only a ‘reduced’ photo interpretation section was to be taken along with any other vehicles and equipment must be destroyed. If no weapons were available, personnel should let themselves be overrun. This transfer had been carried out by 0800 next morning although only two aircraft were serviceable, the rest having minor defects.

On the other hand, desperate expedients were still being resorted to. At 1930 the CO of Sonderkommando T was ready to dispatch five Fi 156s that night, each setting down men carrying 25 kg of explosives on the north bank of the Danube between Donauwörth and Dillingen. Their task was to harass American supply lines and try to blow up bridges. Earlier signals had made clear to the Allies that T stood for Totenkopf (= death’s head). They took off between 0215 and 0230, dropping two-man teams near Dillingen, Nördlingen and Donauwörth. The four machines that came back landed from 0405–0430, reporting that things had gone according to plan although three had been fired on by machine guns or light AA. A follow-up telegram advised that the missing Storch had struck the ground before reaching the target area but that the whole operation had passed of without personnel casualties although one aircraft was lost and two were damaged by AA. In the customary form of words ‘good results [were] to be expected’.

Night fighter units had also been committed against Allied traffic at various places in Bavaria between 1900 and 0250 hours, claiming 15 trucks either destroyed or set ablaze and many more damaged. NJG 6 contributed six Ju 88s and 6 Bf 110s while NJG 2 sent up four Ju88s at a cost of three airmen missing and one wounded while one aircraft was missing and two damaged.

Lorant and Goyat draw on veterans’ testimony that, fearing an air raid, II./JG 300’s aircraft were taxied along the Autobahn to prepared forest dispersals about 10 km from Neubiberg. They say that the airfield was indeed bombed just before midnight (local time) and that the Fw 190s returned in the early hours, Fw Karl Rusack’s being put out of action after colliding with a Kübelwagen. The only Allied incursions recorded by the Luftwaffe’s Operations Staff were:

2210–2250 (GMT+2): Estimated 20 Mosquitoes in the Munich area. Bombs dropped between Dachau and Schleißheim [c. 25 km from Neubiberg] without doing significant damage.

2340–0110 (GMT+2): Estimated 10 intruders in the Upper Bavarian area.

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