Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

I am searching realiable information regarding :

Lt's Donald Parkerson and Fred Barrett down sometime in June or
July 1944 over Serbia ,hosted by Mihalovic fighters. What are the
correct downing dates , which BG's and when were they
evacuated back to Foggia ?

1st Lt.Robert I Wilson also with Mihailovic( downing date and BG )

Also I have a numerous 15th AF airmen photos
which I was unable to ident. can anyoen help ?

Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

1st Lt Frederick H Barrett and 2nd Lt Donald H Parkerson of 772nd BS, 463rd BG were both aboard the B-17G 42-38114 when it was was shot down on 6 June 1944 during a raid on Belgrad airfield. A sentence in the MACR confirms that they were helped by Chetniks.
Source: MACR 5847

2nd Lt Robert I Wilson was the radar navigator aboard the B-17G 42-97653 of 840th BS, 484rd BG, lost on 15 July 1944 during a raid on Ploesti.
Source: MACR 6826
Wilson's shotdown story is in the book "The forgotten 500". Another crew followed his bomber when he fell down and crashed into the mountain. The whole crew of Wilson survived, while the whole other crew was killed.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Laurent

Thank you very much , useful info and happy puzzled solved. By the way allow me a small correction it was 483rd and not 484th .

Thanks very much again

Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Barrett and Parkerson were evacuated on August 10, first Halyard evacuation. Source: Evaders form.

Wilson was evacuated on August 28.
He was in 483bg, not in 484.

Regarding data in "Forgotten 500", I would advise care since proper archival research in it is practically non-existent.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Are they with chetniks?

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Yes they were with Mihailovic, I have many such photos if you can help , send me a Pvt I will be glad to send you some

Thanks
Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

PM sent.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Here is the shot, perhaps someone can identify those airmen hosted by Mihailovic ?

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Guy on the left is obviously Waldo Koo, only Asian American guy I am aware of being with chetniks. He is wearing strip on the nose, which is not present later, so I am guessing this pictured closer to their shoot down.

Next to him looks to be William Crawford.

That puts him in group of 20 airmen being evacuated on September 17.

Their crew members evacuated by chetniks:
William Crawford
Waldo Koo
Rudolph Schmidt
Gerald Wagner
Howard Ford
Curtis Diles
Leland Porter
All from 42-51624, 455bg, 740sq.

And there were also 3 Mustang pilots with them:
John Nelson (31fg)
James Beckham (31fg)
Lloyd Garland Hargrave (52fg)

Another crew joined them, but I think they came later on.
You should first check those I mentioned.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

I have edited post later, it contains answer:
42-51624, 455bg, 740sq.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Next to him looks to be William Crawford.
For other men I don't have images to compare, I am guessing they are from his crew.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Many thanks for the great ID ,howabout those ?

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

This photo, and another from series, is published in one book with caption "Near Ljig, summer 1944. Crew of american bomber that fell near village Ivanovci with local teacher."

There is 10 crewman, probably entire crew.
My guess could be crew of 42-52717, 459bg, they match description.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

I didn't saw other photo you posted, I will reply tomorrow.

Could you tell me if there was any additional info with these photos?
It could greatly reduce possibilities.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

I don't have any description attached

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

For the second photo, guy in the upper left is John Nelson, mustang pilot.
It is published in one serbian book with such caption.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

This might be useful information to you:

After bombing targets in Romania (Ploesti, Bucharest, Campina, Cluj, Brasov, Pitesti), lot of aircraft fell in Yugoslavia, and there were some 430 airmen who were rescued.

Based on which side rescued them, count looks like:
- Chetniks, 290
- Partisans, 109
- Chetniks, then given to partisans, 32

For those mentioned I have at least one document to claim who rescued them.
There is some 20 more that are most probably rescued by partisans, but I am still looking for their Escape statements.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Thanks about both posts above though I am fully aware about all this
further I did not receive the photos mentioned previously

Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Did you mean on other photo from Ivanovci?
Here are both. Clearly on same place and time.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Thanks for posting the shot, but what I meant were the Mihailovic airmen photos you suggested to swap,inddicated by u through pvt

BR
Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Here are photos from Halyard mission I collected on internet.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cw887k1t8z...hotos.zip?dl=0

There are also few magazine articles, which are very useful.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Thanks very much for the photos some of which I didn't have , do you
ID on the photos , if yes let me know. I will check those I have compare
yours and those u don't have I will send u through email

BR
Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

For ID, I mostly don't have them.
However, I have list of names of airmen evacuated on specific date and place.
IE there are photos of last evacuation, and I have list of evacuated men.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Yes pse send me the evacuation photos along with name's list, at my end I will prepare those photo already ID'e and those I will ID now and send you by email the results, it will take however a few days until all this will be done. On the same context I've got a Q , are you associated with Aleksandra and Branko Ylip or Ilin ?

Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

I have already sent you photos.
This is list of airmen being evacuated by chetniks I made year and a half ago (some of them were transferred to partisans).

Place of crash is written in Cyrillic, but in most cases is not precise.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Alex,

you mentioned before that you have list of airmen evacuated during Halyard?
Could you post it? I would like to compare it to my data.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Hi there,

Yes I have been asked about that also this from Shumen Bulgaria, the Turkish hospital and many other lists however all this I am using towards some publications I'm currently working at and with deepest regret I can not share . However in due course I will send you the promised photos and some airmen ID , eventually the
above list corrected .

Also as into the list you posted above is not complete and the locations as you stated are not 100% .Finally I am not interested to research airlifting dates or issues with airlifting which totally out of my sphere. Please advice if you know who are those individuals especially the one on the right wearing Royal Yugoslavian AF pilot
badge except the one seated on right

BR
Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

On the photo are not rescued airmen.

Regarding list I posted, I made some updates since, but not much in Ploesti airmen. I think there could be less than 10 names that could be added or removed.
Overall speaking, it is very complete on chetnik evacuations of Ploesti airmen.

What sources did you use in creating list?

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Your listing is quite accurate , however you need to add one
crew 42-52351 / Lt.Helfrich / 459 BG down on 18.5.44 . The aircraft
came down near Kitchevo and particularly of an interest to
me is the fate of Lt.James O'Donnell (CoP) who was burried somewhere
in that area an as of now not yet located . 2 other crew
were also KIA , 1 POW Stalag Luft and 6 other rescued by
Chetniks.Maybe you know all details ?

Alex K

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Sources I have don't mention chetniks at all.
Especially not Helfrich, who was evacuated on different way.

What sources claim there were chetniks involved?

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Helfrich himself ( check attachment ) although he mentioned
the rescuers as Tito partisans and Chetniks as German collaborators, that
does not make sense. There must be some sort of confussion

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

??
Only way it does not make any sense is that you don't know anything about chetniks or ww2 in Yugoslavia.

Reading at least entry book "Chetniks in ww2" by Tomasevich, you would know situation at the time. Especially that during 1944. there was only one Allied mission with the chetniks, and it's locations are known - and it was never near places mentioned. And that chetniks in Montenegro were under direct German command.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

In some photos you sent on mail there are already names. Those are men evacuated on December 27, and none of them flew over Romania when they were shot down.

Hospital is near Pranjani, where Halyard medical mission worked.

For blurry group picture, airmen are in company of partisans. Without additional info it would be hard to find more about them.

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

If u'd review my previous messages u'll note I mentioned already the identificatons when the time will alow , at the moment I sent what I had available and I put in it names for u , I didn't say they were connected to Romania. Also,there is no need for you to identify me hospitals, partisans ,airmen or other basic stuff. I needed more detailed ID of the airmen photos you posted online ,something u don't know and something your Serbian friends have no info of ,period . So relax will you ? if you can't then you
need to look elsewhere for some faster sources .

And one last thing Mister, take it easy with your expressions and accusations just in case you want me to debate with you futher coze that's something you haven't learned yet !

PS : If you understand English, I wrote that he must have confused the things so cut the nonsense and your ugly remarks above .

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Let's go back to this post.
Sometimes it is OK to question airmen identification of their rescuers, but it is easy to check. In Helfrich case, he was with British mission in Montenegro, and at the time there were no british missions with chetniks, nor chetnik airports used at same area. So his story is not suspicious.
At the Montenegro, chetniks were under direct german command, in unit called Montenegrin volunteer corps.

Regarding your claim of 6 other rescued by chetniks, there is no mention in Helfrich statement of it, nor in MACR.
What sources did you use?

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks
 

Regarding your list, I can understand that you are waiting to publish it first.
But you could at least explain what documents, other sources and methods you used to make such list?

Re: Ploesti Airmen with the Chetniks