Lost B17 and B24 on 1945.01.12 in Belgium

[FrankieS]

Hi, Matthias,


from here: http://www.greenharbor.com/ROHPDF/ROHF44.pdf


page 218


bye,


Frank

[strahljaeger]

Hello Frank, thanks for your answer.

I know the “44th Bomb Group Roll of Honor and Casualties” PDF. There, the sentence is written as a supplement to the loss: “Note: The crash site was ultimately identified in the Elshout area near Bokhoven, Belgium.”

There will be a reason for this sentence. But this is not yet clear to me. Did the US Airforce investigate there? Were there any findings (crew or aircraft) to prove this?

The reason why I persistently ask there is the following:
In our region (which also includes the Wesel area) there were heavy air battles on January 22, 1944 with some Allied losses. Including some B-17s and a B-24.
The B-17 crashes are known and documented with loss locations. The B-24 crash only through information in the MACR (without detailed location information other than the "Wesel" area).

We have not yet been able to prove this crash location. However, we do have a B-24 crash site a few kilometers northeast of Wesel. We became aware of the site through an eyewitness who saw parts of the plane still burning on the ground and who observed the later recovery of (the unkown) wreckage as a child.

During a search we found extremely few parts, but one had a parts stamp from a B-24.

We want to be able to rule out the B-24 #42-72865 with certainty or keep an eye on it as a possible loss.