Bomber crash site, type unknown, help needed

justmic · 01-20-2008, 12:55 PM

Hi,
I am from Austria and have discovered a crash site.
Background:
We bought a little farm north of the Alps not far from the Danube last summer. It turned out that, sometime from 1944 to 1945, a bomber which was shot down by the st. Valentin flak, crashed in our and our neighbors forrest. The neighbors remembered the fact and told uns one day that the plane was shot down during a raid against either Linz, Steyr or Wels.
I dont have very much information yet about the exact date and time.

Today we decided to take a closer look and discovered very many parts. The best thing we found looks like it could be a windowframe. Other things we found include wires, a lot of aluminum and a few things which have readable numbers on them.
I need help identifiing what we found and maybe finding out what type of bomber it could have been. The neighbors remember their parenst speaking of a four engined aircraft (it came in from the south, chopped of the top of the neighbors pear tree hitting the roof antenna and then crashed in the trees beyond.)
I have also been thinking about contacting someone about missing personel.
Nobody knows if there where any survivors after the crash, it seems that a few chutes had been seen, but that ist all. No information about how many.

Is anybody interested in helping to identify pieces? If so I will post pictures of all the parts we found. We have only just begun to dig.

Thanks,

Greetings from central Europe,

Michael

seesul · 01-20-2008, 01:11 PM

Welcome Michael and enjoy the forum.
Post the pics please, these could help us to identify the type of the aircraft...

seesul · 01-20-2008, 01:23 PM

...and the crash site closer location would be helpful...

Micdrow · 01-20-2008, 01:32 PM

Hi Michael, welcome to the forum. Numbers, pictures and a more exact location would be very helpful in trying to identify the wreck. A metal detector may help also.

From what I understand bigger parts of the aircraft can be up to and more then 6 feet into the ground due to the impact of the aircraft.

Might be worth it to ask the neighbors if they remember if anybody came out and salvaged anything after the crash due to live ammo or bombs that could be in the area if it is a bomber.

Hope that helps!!!

justmic · 01-20-2008, 01:56 PM

Hi,
thanks for the welcome.

I will try to post the pictures tomorow.

Michael

justmic · 01-20-2008, 04:10 PM

couldnt wait.... fotographed two parts.... more to come next few days..

justmic · 01-20-2008, 04:21 PM

Well, that didnt work right... kinda big the pictures...what is the best size for jpegs?

lesofprimus · 01-20-2008, 04:33 PM

800x600

lesofprimus · 01-20-2008, 04:34 PM

And u really wanna take pics that have numbers/serials on them, as to help identify...

FLYBOYJ · 01-20-2008, 04:38 PM

Hard to say - it looks like a fuel filler neck.

Like Dan said, any part numbers or inspection stamps would help, espically if they are taken from airframe (aluminum) parts. Things like knobs, switches, and fluid fittings are standard parts and could go to any a number of aircraft.

syscom3 · 01-20-2008, 07:04 PM

Do you have any clue on the exact date the plane was shotdown on?

justmic · 01-21-2008, 04:50 AM

One part (see picture), material aluminium length in centimeters, has a number on it.
No information on exact date of crash. Will be hard to find out but im on to it.
I will post all the other fotos tonight, there are very many interesting parts.

justmic · 01-21-2008, 05:07 AM

The part that Flyboy identified as a maybe fuel filler neck, I found six of those. No telling how many more there are. Of the crown nuts only one. If you look closer at the hugh pics you can see some stamps... mainly on the filler-thing.... the nut has a number on it.
What kind of stamps are we looking for? And how should the numbers be?
Is there a code for different types of manufacturers like the Wehrmacht had?
byf..cra... and so on?
The neighbors only remember their parents speaking of a four engined aircraft crashing in daylight.... would that make it a usaaf aircraft versus british (night operations)?

seesul · 01-21-2008, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lesofprimus

800x600

...or 100 kB...

seesul · 01-21-2008, 05:45 AM

Michael,

if that A/C went down in a day light and if it was a 4 engine bomber, an US A/C would be more logical, 15th USAF, B-24 or B-17. But it´s too soon for a decision...
Anyway, I´ve opened also a tread on another forum, where some of the members are also WW2 vets, some of them even flight engineers from B-17s and B-24s which have spare parts books in their heads, so I just wanted to increase your chance...

So if you´re interested, resize your pictures that you wanna post yet to approx 100 kB and put them also here Request for help in identifying the A/C type