This mission to Magdeberg turned out to be one of the worst mission for the 457th since it began flying. Six crews were lost. The Group put up 36 planes and their target was to be the Krupp machine shops at Magdeberg where anti-aircraft guns and tanks were made. Just before reaching the IP the group was attacked by 25 to 50 ME-109's and FW-190's. The fighters attacked from 4 oclock and 9 o'clock low and hit hardest at the rear of the formation. Five planes were lost to fighters: s/n 43-37518, s/n 43-38181, s/n 43-38026, S/N 43-37834 and 42-97470. One other plane s/n 42-102948 was lost to flak at the target. Bombing was by PFF and the results were unobserved. P-51's arrived to drive off the attacking planes after the damage was done. Three other planes received major damage and twelve received minor damage from flak and fighters.

Plane 43-38181,flown by Lt Ablbert Sikkenga, was hit by fighters just moments after turning on the Insertion Point along with another 4 planes in the Squadron. The attack laste 13 minutes. There were about 50 ME-109's and FW-190's that hit from below and at six and nine oclock. The damage was done by 30 mm cannon shells and the plane left the formation and crashed in Germany.(For a detailed description of this attack see Angelo Archiopoli's account in Mission 128 in "Black Puff Polly" by Roland Byers.)