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357th FIGHTER GROUP

The 357th Fighter Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Force during the Second World War. The 357th operated P-51 Mustang aircraft as part of the U.S. Eighth Air Force and its members were known unofficially as The Yoxford Boys after a village near their base in the UK. (Group tradition holds that the name was the invention of Lord Haw Haw in a broadcast greeting the night of its arrival at RAF Leiston.) Its victory totals in air-to-air combat are the most of any P-51 group in the Eighth Air Force and third among all groups fighting in Europe.

The 357th flew 313 combat missions between 11 February 1944 and 25 April 1945. It is officially credited by the U.S. Air Force with having destroyed 595.5 German airplanes in the air and 106.5 on the ground. The 357th existed as a USAAF unit only during World War II and its immediate aftermath. Its history, lineage and honors were bestowed on an Ohio Air National Guard group, but the Ohio ANG considers itself a direct descendant of the 357th FG.

Notable Pilots from the 357th below.

Adams, Fletcher E.
Bochkay, Donald Harlow
Carson, Leonard Kyle

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