Mustangs lost over Hungary on 14 October 1944

[researcher111]

Your observations are correct and I appreciate your good knowledge
of the 15th Air Force operations in WWII. If the events evolved as you described
then by no means Bell would have met Shadrin , this as much as into
the fixed hinds . Though the variable hinds remain and persist and the case
remains pure speculations . Here are the variables ;

1. The last known position of Lt.Houghton the single one who may
come in question and as correctly assumed by Alex Smart was 15 miles SW of
Budapest , this is the aprox place he either crashed or bailed out. According
various Russian material at my end on Oct 14,44 Shadrin and his wingmen
were by no means near Budapest area, in addition the distance between BK
and Budapest plotting a direct air line between both locations would be some
400 Km or more. Only from Oct 27, 44 and on the 177 GvIAP was operating over
Balaton and moved its base near Balaton by no means ready to operate near or over
Budapest area .

2. Unless the Russian history is wrong and Shadrin unit may have been closer
to Budapest which at this point I fully exclude ,I don't see it working because
their ground controllers won't scramble their fighters 400 Km's away.

3. Why would the Russian archives and historians still cite Bell rather an other
pilot or an other FG ? why on various 332nd memoires same rumours
exist ?

4. If Shadrin & wingmen and as you stated earlier on received a QDM to the *enemy"fighters
( no radar vectoring at that time ) then the Soviet GCA controllers would have later on
discussed the details with the Americans such as on similar incidents between
Capt King and Koldunov in 1944 and Koshedub versus 44-73144 later on in 1945
the 332nd FG would have been excluded .

5. From 1946 through 1949 US Graves Commission was very active in the Balkans
searching for remains and plotting crash sites , interviewing whitnesses etc ,why
then the remains of Lt.Houghton's aircraft and his body were never found ? This
unless the P-51 exploded in mid air something which sofar neither Shadrin ,US
sources nor ground German sources & local whitnesses ever reported.

[Boris Ciglic]

For question No.1, I wish I knew, but, that's one of the purposes of this forum, to try to find some answers

For question No.2, 117.GvIAP was at Crvena Crkva at the time for sure.

For question No.3 I think that at one point someone (possibly Igor Seidov) connected Bell and Shadrin, it was published and the story got a hold.

For question No.4 I can only assume, since general Andey Vitruk and his staff knew well what happened, and no one on US side knew anything about it, they decided to keep silent and it was like it until Shadrin told his wife about it and she said that to Igor Seidov, who was first to publish this story (as far as I know). Speaking of the 7 November 1944 incident over Niš, Red Army suffered huge casualties at the hands of 82.FG and it is understandable why the Soviets raised the matter so high.

For question No.5, they simply might have not known that they should have looked for Houghton near Bela Crkva. They interviewed thoroughly the locals, but the 14 October 1944 incident was a Soviet matter. At the time, Yugoslav (Partisan) authorities in the area were almost non-existent and the Red Army was out of any Yugoslav jurisdiction anyway. Maybe it is connected with question No.4 and all the evidence could have been removed.