[KM1957]

There were four 36th Fighter Group losses in May of 1944, all from the 22nd Fighter Squadron. Three went down on May 21 and one on May 27. Details of each follow, with information taken from group and squadron records, Balcunas' escape and evasion report and MACRs. None of the losses, barring Church who no one saw crash, seem to fit a belly-landing as the photo shows, unless the two which were reported as "spinning in" landed as shown. Balcunas bailed out so again, not sure his ship would have landed as indicated. BUT, that is just my thought and hopefully someone can provide exact details (serial number) of 3T-U. First, the May 21 pilots:
42-25879 with Lt. John Balcunas evading; he stated he was attacking a train and was hit by fire from anti-aircraft weapons on the train. he bailed out near St. Germain de Coulamer.
42-25874 with Lt. John M. Church KIA; he was last seen in bad weather and crashed west of Haudainville.
42-25886 with Maj. Richard T. Deabler being KIA; he flew through a train explosion and was reported to have spun-in near Longwy.
May 27:
Lt. Frank Fazekas was KIA in 42-75525. He was reported to have "done a tight spiral into the ground" near Ledezeele. The pilot who saw him surmised possible oxygen trouble but that was just his guess.

Kent