Info needed: 1945 WWII P-47 plane crash, France

[Cubs]

A request for information has been forwarded to me. I need some WIXer assistance. There are some people that witnessed a circa 1945 P-47 crash in Fischbach, Luxembourg. These folks, now very elderly, want to erect a monument there to the pilot who perished. The best I can get for a date is April, 1945. The witnesses said that the plane crash landed in a field. 2 or perhaps 3 P-47's circled the crash site to see if their buddy was alright. Before the locals could get to the airplane to extricate the pilot, the aircraft exploded. I have 2 names of the witnesses, one is Camille, he and many other people are very grateful for the Allied forces liberating their country and would like to erect a monument. I'm sorry I can't be more specific on the date or even type of P-47. Because the aircraft burned, there were no markings remaining. I will try to get back in touch with these folks and see at least if they can remember whether it was olive drab or natural metal. Any help would be appreciated.

[the330thbg]

The 366th Fighter Group shared airfield Y-29 at Asch, Belgium, with the 406th Fighter Group and moved with them, to airfield Y-94 at Munster-Handorf, Germany in April 1945.

[Holedigger]

Have you dug through the data base listed below? I just went through all of April and didn't see anything that matched, only one in Lux, and that was listed as a landing accident.
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/ ... r1945O.htm

[TonyM]

A request for information has been forwarded to me. I need some WIXer assistance. There are some people that witnessed a circa 1945 P-47 crash in Fischbach, Luxembourg. These folks, now very elderly, want to erect a monument there to the pilot who perished. The best I can get for a date is April, 1945. The witnesses said that the plane crash landed in a field. 2 or perhaps 3 P-47's circled the crash site to see if their buddy was alright. Before the locals could get to the airplane to extricate the pilot, the aircraft exploded. I have 2 names of the witnesses, one is Camille, he and many other people are very grateful for the Allied forces liberating their country and would like to erect a monument. I'm sorry I can't be more specific on the date or even type of P-47. Because the aircraft burned, there were no markings remaining. I will try to get back in touch with these folks and see at least if they can remember whether it was olive drab or natural metal. Any help would be appreciated.

My Data base indicates only one P-47 crash in Luxembourg on 01 April 1945:

P-47D # 42-25773, which was involved in a landing accident at Sandweiler (Field # A-97)

The pilot was Robert L. Butterworth, 379FS/362FG.

The airplane was involved in a landing accident and the pilot was not killed. I'll have to check my microfilm accident report for this date to make sure.

There is no record of any P-47 accident at Fischbach. That does not mean that it did not happen. It just means that the incident is not in the accidnet record. If the airplane crash landed as a result of enemy fire, then it is no accident and is a combat loss/ operational loss and will not show up in the accident record. Need more information.

Not having a pilot name or exact date certainly hamstrings any effort to solve it.

Good luck with your research.

TonyM.

[the330thbg]

Start with digging through the combat records of P-47's stationed in the area.., does not mean she came from nearby either., start from what you know.,. then work outwards.., The 358th FG would be a good start.

Try this group:

p47pilots@logicmountain.com

Please keep us posted on your results.

Best,

Smiz

[Cubs]

Thank you, gentleman. I will keep you posted if I find anything.