I have found a web site, www.armyairforces.com, that provides a list of Missing Air Crew Reports (MACR). For the date, March 18, 1945, there is only one report for a P-47 from the 362nd, MACR #13165. Airframe with serial number 42-28848 was lost. I suspect this is the report of the investigation into Dad's being shot down (eyewitness accounts and others). Anyway, I'm trying to get a copy; I suspect the records are available at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB.

 

Speaking of the AFHRA, there are two interesting books (posted as pdf files) on the airfields used by allied forces in Britian and, after D-Day, in France and Germany. The airfields A-79 and A-82 are identified. I have located their vicinity east of Paris, near the border between France, Luxemburg, and Germany. Across the German border, you will see Bad Kreuznach. I'm trying to identify Etain and some of the other targets cited in Dad's pilot's log.

 

On one map, the name Ardennes is draped across the area. This, of course, was the site of some of the most intense fighting in Europe (after D-Day). In Viet Nam, they used to describe combat as going "into the shit." Well, that is where Dad was during WWII.

I received a call from a Lexington, Kentucky, resident who was a P-47 pilot in France from September, 1944, to May, 1945. He was with the 324th Fighter Squadron and so flew similar missions to roughly the same locations as Dad. He didn't know Dad. Anyway, he provided me with some information about the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. They may have mission reports and other historic documents. I've contacted them and added the agency to the links pages.