Searching crashplace of P-38J 42-68097, 4 March 1944

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks a lot to both of you!

Mr Rswank, I have a fold3 account but so far had only found the index of KU and other German reports for 1 Jan-29 Feb 1944, I did not know that the March 1944 list was available. I have now found it.

Frank, the name is confirming this was the right crash. Thanks a lot.

As for the time difference, it is surprising because in March 1944 the official time zone for both Germany and Great Britain was GMT + 1. The 1340 hrs is far more coherent with all other losses and claims this day, so the 1130 hrs is probably an error.

Best regards

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Just another question for Frank: do you have a German version of the report or an US translation ?

I ask this because I have not been able to find a place called Hobbers or Herberg close to Attendorn. On the other hand there is a place called Hebberg some km NW of Attendorn (the fold document says 6 km NW of Attendorn, you said 6 km NE).

[Frank Olynyk]

Laurent,
I have the German report. I figured the American translation would just introduce potential errors.

Enjoy!

Frank.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks Frank for the quick reply again.

Hobbers just seemed more English than Deutsch in its spelling, and as I could not find one, I thought it might have been a bad copy/translation.

I just had another idea and thought that the final s might be an abreviate form of strasse, so I searched a Hobberstrasse in the area, but still no luck.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I did another pass on several map websites and I am convinced that the location was near Hebberg, NW of Attendorn for the following reasons:

_ Hebberg is close in spelling to Herberg in the translated doc available on fold3.
_ it is also not so far from Hobbers in the original German document.
_ it is exactly 6 km from Attendorn.
_ regarding the NW or NE direction from Attendorn, NW is more probable because a point 6 km NW of Attendorn is still depending from Attendorn, while 6 km NE it will be under Finnetrop juridiction, and so this later place will probably be the place of reference of the crash. On the other hand, between Attendorn and Hebberg, there is no big village, only forest and hills, so a reference to Attendorn seems logical.