36th FG Operations 24.12.1944

[John Manrho]

Does anybody have the Mission Report or Combat Reports of th 36th FG (53rd FS) on December 24th, 1944? Would love to have copies....

Regards,

John

[KM1957]

I have the daily mission reports on CD and microfilm; have never found any combat reports for any of their aerial claims. The group flew nine missions on this date, with the 53rd Fighter Squadron making their claims on #4. Are you interested solely in this mission or all nine? It's been a while since I had the CD in, but do remember the quality of pages ranges from excellent to barely readable. I can give you the roll numbers if you wish to order from the AFHRA at Maxwell, or I can try and send you mission #4 via private message. It may take a bit to get it around, and I am not a computer whiz by any means, but I'll do what I can.

Kent

[John Manrho]

Hi Kent,

Yeah, it's only the mission with the combat claims I am interested in. Would love to see the mission report. I will send you my email adress through PM, no hurry though as I will be traveling the coming weeks.

John

[Alex Smart]

Hello John,
Expect you have this by now,but just in case you are still searching.
24th December 1944.
The Group lost three P47's.
All over Belgium.
44-19864, 22nd Squadron, Losing, Charles J. becoming a POW. MACR 11441
44-19560, 53rd Squadron, Brannen, Shelton (nmi) becoming a POW. MACR 11440
44-19941, 53rd Squadron, Lane, Roger T. Who was KIA. MACR11442.

Alex

[John Manrho]

Thanks Alex. Do we know where these two 53rd FS a/c crashed and the the exact time? Perhaps the MACR's contain some info. Has anybody these MACR's?

John

[hanshauprich]

Hello,
as my knowlege, Roger T. Lane was shoot down near Prüm Germany and MIA until 1993.
h.

[Alex Smart]

Hello,
From Macr's,
11440
"Last seen" a cross on map at Vielsalm.
11441
Hit by AA in the vicinity of Horton.
11442
Aircraft name "Scrumptious Betty".
"Last seen" a cross on map as per 11440, Vielsalm.
All three macr's are only five or so pages each.
Alex

[Horst Weber]

Originally Posted by John Manrho

Thanks Alex. Do we know where these two 53rd FS a/c crashed and the the exact time? Perhaps the MACR's contain some info. Has anybody these MACR's?

John

Good evening John !

Lt. Lane's P-47 crashed at about 12:15 into a field due South of Siedlung Schwirzheim-Gondelsheim, halfway between the road B 410 in the South and the railway line North. This is about 6 km ENE of Prüm and 1.5 km South of Gondelsheim.

Eyewhitnesses confirmed the time as around noon. They also reported that the a/c came out of a formation in high altitude and crashed in a steep dive with a smoke trail nearly vertically into the ground.

A search for the a/c in August 1994, which based initially on the interest of a local history-club, dug up a number of debris and parts inclusive one or two installed weapons. The numbers of this weapon-numbers were visible and so, they could be checked by AFHRA microfilm # A1115 as those, which were installed at Lt. Lanes's P-47 s/n 44-19941.

After this findings, JAPAC was informed and they did the final work to recover the human remains of the pilot and did the further actions.

John , since I was involved into the whole search, I can give you the information by first hand.


best wishes !

Horst Weber

[John Manrho]

Thanks Horst, much appreciated!