real or?

[Stijn David]

Hello,


This picture popped up in my hometown. This as this picture is supposed to be taken near Tielt during WWII.

Can anyone shed some light as such on it?

* Can the (allied) pilot be identifyed?
* Can the cause why he was downed be identifyed? Shot down by? DOwned by AA, other cause?

Or is this picture a non orginal picture in the way that it was placed in Scene for Propaganda use? (A Belgian museum suggested this as such)


Cordial greetings and thanks in advance,

[Alfred.MONZAT]

You can read the name of the pilot (James Buckingham DALGLISH of the 381st FS, 363rd FG, 9th AF) and the serial number 42-106834.

This aircraft crashlanded at Wingene, 8km NNW of Thielt, Holland due to engine failure on 24 May 1944. Pilot, Edward J. KILMARTIN survived and became POW (MACR 15234).

At this date, James Dalglish had 6 confirmed victories (including two shared) and 6 damaged (including one shared) to his credit, so in american terms a 5.0 score.

The guy in the cockpit is a german soldier (?). The weed over the aircraft are there to hide it from allied planes who would have straffed it otherwise to avoid it being flown by the Germans.

Regards

Alfred

[Stijn David]

Hi Alfred,


Thanks for your very informative answer! I can add a little correction in that, that is to say that Thielt (old writing - no longer used officially since 1931 normally) is a town in Belgium/West-Flanders and not Holland.


Cordial greetings,

[udf_00]

42-106834 : 1st Lt. Charles H. Smith O-748820 ????

[Horst Weber]

Good evening !

There must be something mysteric with this downing. The a/c serial didn't find entrance to the official MACR's numerical (s/n by s/n) list.

There is no notice of the s/n in the 8th AF books of Andrews and Adams for that day.

But there are two notes in German KUJ-reports for the day:
- "24 May 44 Mustang 2106834 Wingens KUJ 1195"
- "24 May 44 1150 Mustang Wynghene, NE of Roselaere KUJ 1195"

So you can see by those circumstances, that the photo shows areal crashlanded Mustang with a German soldier in it. If it was taken for fun or for propaganda, who knows ?.

But I have no idea, why this obviously loss wasn't listed in the official U.S.
missing aircrew reporting system am why it received such high MACR-number. The average of the MACR-numbers on that May 24th was about #5,000 - 5,200.

Best regards !

Horst Weber

[Alex Smart]

hello,
MACR for 42-106834 is quoted as being 15234 in the Joe Baugher's USAAF serial number lists.
17 pages available on "Fold3".
Pilot's details given as per post 4 above.

POW Details via NARA

http://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-d...g=1&rid=115374

Alex