11/15/2023 0 Comments B 24 bomber crew listingsThis was the crew’s 10 th mission together. Six of the crew perished 4 were able to parachute to safety and were captured. The plane crashed near Troubky in the present-day Czech Republic. Firstly Im sure you mean to say 735th Bomber Squadron, which together with 732nd BS,733rd BS and 734th BS were all part of the same Bomber Group. The formation was attacked by enemy aircraft and shoit down. On DecemB-24J (44-41016) piloted by 1LT Thomas West, flying out of Torretta, Italy as part of the 765 th Bomber Squadron, 461 st Bomber Group, 49 th Bomber Wing, 15 th Airforce, on a raid to bomb the Odertal Oil Rifinery in Germany. Ross, Trefry A ~ S/Sgt, Waist Gunner, CA ~ POW Names of the crew and sponosrs are located on the co-pilot’s side of the aircraft. The B-24J S/N 44-44052 'Witchcraft' bomber has been completely restored and is maintained in airworthy condition by the Collings Foundation of Stowe. It was the only heavy bomber used in the Pacific by the RAAF and they operated from Australia, Morotai (East Indies) and Palawan (Philippines). The 'J' model was the most produced version of the B-24 with a total of 6,678 built. About 287 Liberators (B-24D, B-24J, B-24L and the B-24M models) eventually served in RAAF bomber squadrons. Qualman, Thomas W ~ 2nd Lt, Navigator, MI ~ POW After the war Liberators were replaced in 1948 by Avro Lincolns. Noesges, Thomas M ~ 2nd Lt, Bombardier, IL -POW Kasold, Edmund A, Jr ~ 2nd Lt, Co-Pilot, CA ~ POW The two airmen remembered on the monument who were repatriated were:ĭeibert, Thomas E ~ S/Sgt, Top Turret Gunner, ILĪlso remembered on grave who perished in the crash:Īirmen who survived the crash and not remembered (other than a picture of the crew mounted on the grave) include: Yesia, Frank C, Jr ~ Corp, Bottom Turret Gunner, IL The three crewmembers still buried at this location include: The grave originally included the bodies of five crew members, but two were repatriated in the early 1950s. The grave site remembers the six who perished in the crash. Six of the crew were killed in the plane crash 4 survived. The grave includes the Isolated Burials (ISOB) of three crewmates of a B-24 (44-41016). The people of Troubky vowed to fly the American flag every July 4th and December 17th in memory of the six young men buried here. At the height of World War II, a B-24 Liberator bomber vanished with its crew while on a training mission over upstate New York. Alongside the monument is an 18 foot flag pole of the same material with a cross at the top. In Vanishing Point, award winning journalist and author Tom Wilber pieces together the largely forgotten story of the bomber, Getaway Gertie, and an eclectic group of enthusiasts who have spent years searching for it. In the small village of Troubky, Czechoslovakia in a corner of a little Catholic cemetery stands a black Italian marble monument 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide with a life-size bronze likeness of Fred Gaul, our “Put-Put” engineer, descending in his parachute which did not open. Description of the grave by crewmember Noesges: A beautiful gray marble grave site with a sculpture of a parachuting airmen on the upright portion of the grave.
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