P-38 crash in Drvar, Bosnia, in September 1944.

[RSwank]

Number 11, Sinclair was last seen with his right engine on fire at 42 20N, 15 04E. The MACR 13005 on fold3 seems to be missing the eyewitness statement of a Lt Burke, so I am not sure if he says he actually saw the plane crash. The date of the crash, 10 March 45 may rule it out.


Number 16, Strader is flying from Enland (RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall) direct to Foggia. He never arrives. He was last seen when he took off at 9:15.

Number 20, Gillen is last seen near Wiener Neustadt (Lake Neusiedler). His element had just flown through a heavy concentration of 20mm flak. They were flying quite low, 300 feet at one point. Gillen is missing after passing through the flak concentration.

[Rainer]

Number 14 is mentioned as witness in another MACR in March 1945, so it is likely that he was lost on 22 April 1945.

Apparently only the MIA cases number 15 & 16 are from the timeframe August to October 1944.

[RSwank]

And number 17, Lindberg who went missing on Oct 11, 1944 some 45 miles from the actual crash site.

[Alex Smart]

Hello Swank,
In regard to your early post numbered 2.
Take a look at Macr 3880, a B24 crew. The only Flag3 find for Drvar that I could find.
The remains (X-55) may well be those of the B24's dead man that remains unfound.
The story of the witnesses is also similar to the P38's pilot fate.
Alex

[RSwank]

Alex, I looked over MACR 3880. Eight of the crew evaded. The pilot, Frederick E Streicher was a POW and has a post war statement in the MACR. The co-pilot, George E Morrell was from New Jersey and he was killed on the ground and was buried in Yugoslavia.

However, Morrell is not on the current AAF MIA list here:
http://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Docum...air_force.html
nor on the current Army MIA list here:
http://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Docum...ates_army.html
nor the combined services list for New Jersey here:
http://www.dpaa.mil/portals/85/Docum...ew_jersey.html

He is not buried in an ABMC overseas cemetery as can be checked on the abmc.gov website.

I think Morrell's body was recovered and returned after the war.

[vathra]

Originally Posted by RSwank

I think Morrell's body was recovered and returned after the war.

You are correct, he is listed as being transferred from Yugoslavia after the war.

[RSwank]

I posted Lindberg's MACR on the armyairforces.com forum (running out of posting space on this forum).

http://forum.armyairforces.com/threa...721/#post-4373

On that thread we explored the fate of No 15, Townsend and have pretty much ruled him out also.
We also turned up a couple more MIAs (Brewer and Coulson) not on the list of 20 (see list above in this thread) and also ruled them out.

Also just FYI, the grave site of George E Morrell has been located.
http://forum.armyairforces.com/threa...735/#post-4377

[Alex Smart]

Hello,
Brewer - MACR 9694, Raska area .
Coulson - MACR 9696, Raska area.
Both have times around 11.00 hrs.
Both KIA.
Alex

[RSwank]

Alex, do you have the plane serial numbers for Brewer and Coulson?

Another question for you. since you came up with a "missing" MACR number for Townsend.

Joe Baugher has a page showing MACRs for P-38s in the serial number range of 44-23059 to 44-23208 here:
http://cgibin.rcn.com/jeremy.k/cgi-b...23059&content=


We think the P-38 involved with X-55 was possibly from that range of numbers but the MACR is "missing" - thus not on fold3.com and not on Joe's list either.

Do you know of any MACR numbers for planes in this range (44-23059 to 44-23208) that are NOT shown on Joe Bauger's list?

[Rainer]

These two MIA cases were on the list I've compiled from the DPAA data (and were already ruled out by vathra):

5. 1944-11-07 2LT BREWER, PHILIP (O-715462) 95 FS/82 FG >> MACR 9694: P-38L 44-24035 lost over Serbia on 7 Nov 1944
18. 1945-11-08 2LT COULSON, ELDON E (O-715478) 95 FS/82 FG >> MACR 9696: P-38J 43-28662 lost over Yugoslavia on 7 Nov 1944