Allied aircraft crashed in Piacenza area in september 1944

[Gianandrea Bussi]

Thank you for the very useful informations.
I didn't took the pictures, I've received them. There is not a view of the rear part of the large panels. I join a bigger picture of them.

Gianandrea

[Alex Smart]

Hello Gianandrea,
Are ALL the parts from the same crash site ?
As ssome seem ti show Spitfire while others seem to show Beaufighter ?
Or could we be seeing the result of a collision between the two a/c types ?
Then again we could just be looking at some parts from a wreckage collection site.
All for now
Alex

[Gianandrea Bussi]

Hi!

If that piece come from a Spitfire, I think that the owner of the wrecks mixed them up! There are other crash sites in the Piacenza area.
But I still think that it could be a USAAF Beaufighter: according to witnesses the two crewmembers were american and the aircraft had two radial engines.

I've checked MACR's in the Footnotes site.
Beaufighter ND294 crashed near the airport of Lonate Pozzolo (a translated german report is included) so it can't be the aircraft I'm looking for.

Two other Beau that crashed probably in Northern Italy are MM 935, missing on 18 novembre 1944 (Howard John M. - Murphy John S.) and KV944 missing on 17 novembre 1944 (Graham Joe Scott - Richard Burton).
Even though they crashed in november, perhaps one of them could be the aircraft crashed at Gusano.
Does anyone know the crash place of these two Beaufighters?
Is it possible to find the place of the first burial of the crewmembers?

A third aircraft could be MM 917 missing on 29 november 1944 (Billie Joe Fox- Ralph Donald Mulhollen): unluckily, in the Footnote MACR the page with the infos about the aircraft and his mission is missing (there is that one of B-17G 44-6549 instead): does anyone could give any informations?

Thank you very much for the help

Gianandrea

[dp_burke]

Try to contact the museum at Duxford in the UK, they are rebuilding a Beaufighter at present and ought to be very familiar with parts of the airframe.

http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/

Also, in the area where the debris was recovered, was there local Italian police or security forces? Are there any surviving local archives? Did any of the local churches perhaps have the men buried in their cemeteries?

[PeterA]

This item is without doubt a starboard Spitfire aileron and begs the question where did it come from and are there anymore parts to go with it.

At worst this was from a belly landing.

PeterA

[Revi16]

Not the best pic, but img013.jpg may be the overwing nacelle panels.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-1234S-041.jpg

[Wimpy40]

Images 2,6 and 7 could be part of the u/c framework of a Bristol Beaufighter.

Maybe these images might help

One shows the position of the fuel cover.

[Gianandrea Bussi]

Following the finding of the crewmember names by local researchers, the aircraft crashed at Gusano has been identified:

Beaufighter Mk VIII MM 935 414 NFS, posted missing during a mission over North Italy on 18 november 1944.

Gianandrea