B17 crash in Summer 1944 near Munich

[Bayerwald]

Cheers from Munich,


a former Flakhelfer reports that a B17 went down between Dachau and Schleissheim in the summer of 1944 (likely late July).

Are there any sources that could specify the particular loss?


Thanks in advance,
D.

[RSwank]

A way you could try to find this plane would be to proceed as follows. (We will assume the story is correct, e.g. it was not a B-24, it did happen late in July, etc. It has been my experience that often the "facts" in these stories are confused.)

Start with the July chronology:

http://paul.rutgers.edu/~mcgrew/wwii...ml/Jul.44.html

Note that Munich was attacked many times in July (search for Munich on the link). (You can also check June and August by just changing the month abbreviation that appears at the end of the URL.)
There was a heavy raid on July 31 and 10 B-17s were lost.
“1. Of 705 B-17s, 567 bomb Munich, 43 hit Schleissheim Airfield, 36 hit
aircraft engine plants at Munich-Allach and 4 hit targets of opportunity; 10
B-17s are lost and 331 damaged; 2 airmen are KIA, 6 WIA and 82 MIA. Escort is
provided by 439 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 0-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft in the
air and 18-0-12 on the ground; 1 P-47 and 2 P-51s are lost (pilots are MIA)
and 5 P-47s and 3 P-51s are damaged.”

Next check the MACR lost list of B-17s on July 31 to try and zero-in on the 10 B-17s lost in the Munich raid: http://accident-report.com/MACR/1944/m194407.html

There appears to be 10 B-17s listed as lost in Germany on the 31st.
You can use the B-17 list here (look up by plane serial number) to see if any of the 10 planes crashed just north of Munich:
http://www.91stbombardmentgroup.com/...ID/FORTLOG.pdf

I did a quick check (I may have missed some) and found:
42-32030 MACR 7744 exploded over Schleissheim
Some others to possibly check further may be:
42-102435 MACR 7746
42-102535 MACR 7751

(42-39948 actually returned to base with a dead gunner hence the MACR but the plane was not lost)

You can then look up the individual MACRs to see details. This is fairly easy if you have fold3.com access, but it can also be done using the National Archives website. Here, for example, is the MACR 7744 for 42-32030.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/91039837

[Icare9]

Just a general comment....

Of 705 B-17s, 567 bomb Munich, 43 hit Schleissheim Airfield, 36 hit
aircraft engine plants at Munich-Allach and 4 hit targets of opportunity; 10
B-17s are lost and 331 damaged;

331 damaged and 10 lost, almost HALF the force deployed.....

Seems astounding - either those B17's were tough old crates or the damage seems almost as much by cross fire than attacking aircraft.

I know the USAAF had enormous numbers of bombers, but surely those amounts of damaged aircraft must have impacted the crews, let alone the airframes.

[Bayerwald]

Perfect, thanks very much!
Will dig into it and report on the outcome.