Liberator Loss 27 Aug 43

[Chris Goss]

A pilot from 1./NAG 13 claimed a B-24 at 1902hrs on this date. Quite a bit going on in the Bay with the attack by KG 100 with Hs 293s. I can see nothing in Coastal Command Combats, CWGC or losses for FAW 7 and 479 & 480th ASG so does anyone have any suggestions?

[Leendert]

B-24D 42-40767 of 398th BG a possibility? Lost on transfer flight from Morocco to England. MACR 12266.

Regards,
Leendert

[Buckeye30]

Hi Lee. This was 564BS / 389BG "The Bad Penny", she missed the Aug. 1 Ploesti mission but shot down on the 27th. (Baugher says by KG40); she had a Skunk artwork left side, a one cent coin on the right. Letter was "G".


Regards
Nick
https://www.389thbg.com/389_ploesti.htm

[Leendert]

Indeed, mixed up 389th with 398th...

Leendert

[Chris Goss]

Thanks both. Found this :


27th Aug 43, while en-route from Marrakesh to England, the Lighter crew and their aircraft disappeared, with all aboard presumed lost. A/C was attacked by German fighters over the Channel. One prop was feathered after the first pass, the aircraft losing altitude. Then the rear fuselage was badly hit; the top turret also exploding. The pilot ditched as he was too low for a bailout. Due to the rough sea the B-24 broke in two at the back end of the bomb-bay and sank quickly, approximately 65 miles southwest of Portreath. 12 KIA 3 POW. MACR 12266.


Looks like 2/Lt Dwayne C Lighter was unlucky to be bounced by a recce Fw 190-he was one of the 3 POW. Not a V./KG 40 claim. Does the MACR add any more detail?

[Leendert]

Chris,
You can find full MACR 12266 (34 pages) here: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/91124132?objectPage=2

Regards,
Leendert

[Buckeye30]

Chris. I mentioned KG.40 as the Kracker LW Archive has Hptm. Hans Morr (15.St.) listed with a B-24D on the 27th off C. Finisterre; this is evidently incorrect if they were Fw.190s which would have come from St. Brieuc (Brittany) almost on a line from Marrakesh to Cornwall.
Page 18 of the MACR quotes "the German pilots that shot us down" and there were other reports of "attacked by fighters".
There were obviously some unknowns in the MACR as p.33 states possibly off course and ditched due to lack of fuel. The times quoted several times are 17.00 and 17.50 PM, presumably take off from Morocco. The aircraft was separated from the group due to weather.

Regards
Nick

[Chris Goss]

Nick: I should have checked Bloody Biscay! The Morr claim was from incorrect information 25+ years ago and in any case, the location of the combat was nowhere near where V./KG 40 would have been operating

[Stig Jarlevik]

Chris

Should we interpret your answer that there was in fact no claim made at all by anyone from V./KG 40?
In such a case from where comes your claim data?

If Morr's claim after all was made (is a time known?) he is right on the spot where 389BG Liberators
are returning back to UK.

I cannot stop wondering if the unlucky 42-40767 might have been attacked twice? Of course Morr might
have attacked anyone of the returning Liberators so a total conjecture of course.

Cheers
Stig

[Chris Goss]

Stig

I now have no confirmed claim for V./KG 40 on this date. Claim data came from a list which came from Germany which I used for Bloody Biscay when I write it in 1997; new data now disputes some of this data. No mention of 2 attacks and Morr's claim is said to have occurred off Cape Finisterre which is miles away from where this B-24 crashed and of course, as Morr did not see it crash he would not have claimed it