Looking for 2 US bombers lost 2 March 1944

[Theodor]

Thanks again Mike - I think these are the other 2 aircraft.

I mean, according to some USAAF sources that I found, 4 bombers were lost during the various missions on 30 March 1944. Seems 2 collided and 2 were shot - the 2nd pair are the ones I am looking for.

The two that collided were from the 2nd BG, 20th Squadron, as stated in the MACR report.

But the assault on Sofia, Bulgaria, was done by 456th BG aircraft - just found this in the footnote.com site, from picture and document from the NASM archives.

P.S. Just found that the 456th BG has a site, even a very small forum. I hope they would have some further information

[Leendert]

Theodor,

Mission list on 456th BG website says only 5 of its B-24s took part in raid on Sofia and none were lost...

301st BG also bombed Sofia on 30 March 1944.

The MACRs of the B-17s Mike has mentioned have 42.45 N and 22.35 E as location of loss (collision).

Regards,

Leendert

[Theodor]

Thank you for clarifying that! I saw the number 5, but could not understand this means the number of aircraft participating!

I checked the coordinates on the Google Earth and it matches the location!
So, it seems exactly these two aircraft are the ones I am looking for!

However, then the records must be wrong? Because this is a well known case, witnessed by many, air and ground, even I found ground witnesses from the villages nearby /schoolboys at the time/ who watched it happen - the fighter attack, the explosions, the gathering of the bodies, several of them badly burned still in the air...