Oberammergau crash - 332nd FG involved ?

[ClinA-78]

Another link:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/tra...skegee-airmen/

[ClinA-78]

My very good friend Flupke - thanks a lot - provides me with a listing quoting some wreckages (I don't remember the naming of the original doc) and the reference to a report (such as the J-... series).

Does someone has access to them and would like to share them ? I presume a lot of them are lost but who knows?

Whatever, at least, there are 3-4 losses in Oberammergau area on the 17-18th July 1944, all of them... Mustang

1°) 17/7/44 forenoon Mustang Grafenachschau (= Grafenaschau, 7 km NE O'gau) ME 1589
2°) 18/7/44 forenoon Mustang NE of Oberammergau ME 1672
3°) 18/7/44 1035 Mustang Near Kohlgrub (8 km N O'gau) ME 1632
4°) 18/7/44 1100 Mustang N of Oberammergau ME 1670

They should be some duplication and inaccurancy but perhaps in one of those reports we would get the location matching the O'gau crashsite?

Best regards

ClinA-78

[quote=ClinA-78;158879]
Whatever, at least, there are 3-4 losses in Oberammergau area on the 17-18th July 1944, all of them... Mustang

1°) 17/7/44 forenoon Mustang Grafenachschau (= Grafenaschau, 7 km NE O'gau) ME 1589
2°) 18/7/44 forenoon Mustang NE of Oberammergau ME 1672
3°) 18/7/44 1035 Mustang Near Kohlgrub (8 km N O'gau) ME 1632
4°) 18/7/44 1100 Mustang N of Oberammergau ME 1670

One of the Oberammergau P-51's belonged to my father. I've received wonderful news than a historian is in the process of digging up pieces of it and has records of eyewitness acounts of the battl, crash and capture of my father, Lt Gene C. Browne.

[ClinA-78]

Hi

The Mustang reported crashed near Grafenaschau is in fact s/n 43-6854 of 1st Lt Charles O. HERMAN (31 FG/308 FS) KIA on the 18/7/44. Kohlgrub is very close to Grafenaschau and should be the same aicraft.

Are those 'ME...' reports kept at the NARA or somewhere else?

Best regards

ClinA-78

[ClinA-78]

Any guess?

I should have named that thread with 'Tuskegee' or 'Red Tails' stuffs, perhaps it would have brought more interest...

Best regards and, once again, thank you for your attention.

ClinA-78

[ssg keay]

It would be interesting to determine if the LT Irving is really still MIA and if his crash-site can be located.
abmc.gov does not list a LT W. Irving MIA, nor KIA, which indicates that if his remains have been recovered, he was re-interred into a stateside cemetery.

Very few Tuskegee airmen are listed MIA and most that are, crashed into water. If he truly is still MIA and the site can be located, then we can recover his remains before 2013 is over.

Danny

[Leendert]

According this newspaper article, Lt Irving is buried at Vicksburg National Cemetery, Vicksburg, Mississippi and thus not mentioned on MIA lists.

See http://www.nps.gov/vick/parknews/vic...tory-month.htm

Regards,

Leendert

[ClinA-78]

Thanks Gent's for your attention.

It puzzles me a little bit as Irving has a marker in Vicksburg cemetery but his remains seem not been recovered - according to the former link I have posted :

"My friend Gary & I went to the Vicksburg National Cemetery this morning to find Lt. Irving’s marker – his remains were never found – and pay our respects."

Better is to order the IDPF before going further in this story.

@ Danny: "then we can recover his remains before 2013 is over"; why before this year? I was thinking about that possibility and your experience should be interesting.

Best regards

ClinA-78

[ssg keay]

ClinA, sorry that it took me soo long to repsond. Originally I was supposed to retire in 2013, but I am now retiring this August. Have you ever found out more about this crash (Irving)? I am still stationed in Bavaria, though near Regensburg. Danny

[Joerg Dietsche]

Gentlemen,
last summer I had the chance to live 3 weeks in Oberammergau and I studied the case in the context of the whole airbattle on 18 July 1944 (Mission to Memmingen airfield) where the 332nd FG should provide escort coverage for the bombers.

In short:
I met an eyewittnes of the crash of 2nd Lt Gene C. Browne with the statement - I saw a pilot coming down on a parachute and he was black. Aircraft itself came down about 100m in front of here, while she was hiding in a barn. Next day she saw the prisoner looking out of a cellar of the Passion Play Theatre in Oberammergau. She could see only the eyes and the teeth. Everything else was black.

A local friend did a search and found pieces with oliv trap and red color. These were sent to the 332nd FG Association and concluded, based on part numbers and matching with a real "Mustang", these parts belong to a P-51.

We received the diary of 2nd Lt Browne, where he stated he met on the way to the prison camp a B-24 crew, shot down a day after Browne's event.
This B-24 matches with MACR 7055, investigation is in progress. There are some indications that 1st Lt Charles O. Herman came down with his P-51 not far away.

Cline, when you are at NATO school Oberammergau go to the Town Archive. The lady there has my report.

Regards

Jörg