sentences:  It was from Lavenham that Brigadier General Frederick Castle took off to lead the largest Eighth Air Force mission of the war on Christmas Eve 1944.The object of the attacks, in which 1,400 bombers were escorted by 726 fighters, was to bomb eleven German airfields east of the Rhine while another 634 heavy bombers attacked communication centres west of the Rhine.Altogether fifty-six American aircraft were lost that day including General Castle's B-17, in an action for which he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, his being the last award of that decoration to a member of the Eighth.