Stories of Objects - Story of the Second Third Sunday of Advent 1944

Hello, my friends.

In my last post I introduced you to the story of the B24 Liberator No77 bomber shot down during the air battle over Hana on 17.12.1944. I did not choose this aircraft by chance. During the years 2016-20 I have repeatedly returned to the crash site and the findings I want to share with you are proof that the oldeven if everyone tells you the sites are long ago chosen, there are still interesting things to be found. Patience and humility, but above all the "innovative prospector's method of gradual digging" has borne its fruit, but it was really hard-earned.-)

At the beginning there are two photos of the impact site, just for interest in 2016 vs 2020, the mentioned bark beetle calamity and the Sudeten winds changed the site beyond recognition. (photo 15 + 16) On the site contamination.cz from 1954 (photo 17) is again visible the clearing in the forest that caused the plane crash. It was a dense forest, later, as part of the creation of VVP Libava, the whole area remained behind a fence made of other wire. The debris is located in a zone of about 15 x 4m, 15 to 30 cm below the surface. The first findings - personal belongings of the crew members were found in the area where the section starts (taken from the left), the cockpit belongings on the opposite side. Seemingly illogical, but you have to take into account that when several tons of metal collapse in one placephysics is unpredictable...plus forestry roads, my explorer predecessors and other factors turn logic on its head. The truth is that my first motive for taking a closer interest in the site was the discovery of a pilot's badge and other personal effects of Lt.Hailey by a researcher from Olomouc, the cabin items that I will present to you today were a few meters from where his charred body probably lay. A report from the chronicle of the defunct village of Gross Dittersdorf ( Chemrna) showed that two of the airmen were not identified ( Lt.Hailey commander and Lt.Hendrix co-pilot photo 21).

I must admit that I firmly believed that I would find at least one ID mark, in two cases in similar settings ( Milovany, Vaclavov) my colleagues managed to do so..it didn't work out, but let's get to the finds. I would say that I have probably the most personal relationship to these things, they were right in the center of the drama, they have only one fault, they can't tell a story.-) Fig.1,2,3,4 My favourite little thing, the rear cover of the UV deck lamp from Grimes M.FG.Co Urbana, Ohio,, I identified it only years later while examining in more detail a potentially interesting scrap I keptI kept for long winter evenings... gradually the inscription began to appear, interestingly dented inwards, in the direction of impact..had it first hand, the UV lamp is in a central position in the cockpit Fig.5,6. The engine running light, was located in front of the pilot, each of the four engines had its own. Before crashing into the woods the left wing and both engines broke off the bomber, whether the fuselage with one engine or two was hit on the spot can only be speculated, but one internal one at least..maybe that's it..Fig.7, 8. A fragment of the Mixture lever..The pilots had in front of them a trio of levers of four (one for each engine) with individual symbols B, T, M...B -propeller blade pitch adjustment, T - Throttle Air intake to the engine and finally M- Mixture - mixture richness Fig.9, 10 Wheel -controller of the autopilot , the cockpit offset (brown thing)..At one point, on a raised embankment on a forest road, after a few kicks, all these treasures, fragments of perhaps everythingall sorts of levers, there's a fragment of a UV lamp switch (with a white line), part of an alarm clock frame, a fragment of the lower ball turret. Fig.11,12. Pionnier radio compass control wheel, my colleague found a label from this instrument years ago, located right in the middle of the cockpit. Fig 13 + 14 Interior of the B24 cabin with descriptions where the above described things were placed ( cockpit full - 1. UV lamp, 2. Mixture, 3. Engine lights, 2. Cockpit ophuk, 3. Autopilot control wheel/ In the final installment we'll be waiting for the mystery of the blue slide and a few other interesting things.

kein

1

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA