[Steve_Fossey]

OK, maybe I can't edit my post.

John:
Is the information you posted for the 97th BG? It was mission #28 for the 463rd. A list of the missions on the website http://www.463rd.org/1944missions.htm lists 31 A/C sent from the 463rd on 24 May 1944. It doesn’t list any losses. I think the list was made just after or during the war and there may have been time constraints to compiling it. I would be surprised if there were no inaccuracies. A history of the 775th BS written just after the end of the war "Allyn’s Irish Orphans" indicates "Nine enemy aircraft were encountered enroute to the target and one 775th plane (No. 841) was lost."

Eyewitness accounts in MACR 5195 indicate that before 42-31841 broke up, two engines were knocked out and all four engines were smoking. In some audio tapes my father made he says that the right two engines were knocked out on the second pass. The bombadier 2nd Lt. Carl Janas was killed by a 20 mm shell. The navigator 2nd Lt. Wyckoff may or may not have been wounded. It was reported that his parachute did not open. There was also fuel leaking from the right wing and burning.

Tomislav:
Thanks for the info on the LW losses on 24 May. It’s interesting that Oblt. Altnorthoff was shot down near Cilli (Celje). My father evaded capture for a few hours, but was captured while trying to contact partisans. He was taken to the outskirts of a city that he thought might be Zagreb, but Zagreb is 100 km from Sostanj and that seems too far away. Celje at about 12 km seems more likely.

Thanks,
Steve