Locating Aircraft Crash Location

The date of the crash was June 23, 1944.

I have sent you a pm

I think it is possible to find the place. Do you know if it was shot down or it was a technical failure ?

Thank you for your interest and your reply.

The subject B-24 was damaged during a bombing mission on June 23, 1944 over Giurgiu, Romania, most likely by flak.  They had two engines damaged and inoperative.

The pilot was flying west at low altitude on a direct route back to their base near Cerignola in Italy.  As he approached the mountains east of Pirot, he did not have enough power to climb to a high enough altitude to get over the mountains.

So the entire crew  bailed out by parachute.  It has been reported, but not confirmed, that some came down on the east side of the mountains, and some on the west side.

All 10 crewmen were captured individually, questioned in Sofia, then transferred by train to the POW camp at Shumen.  They were returned home in October, 1944.

The only information that I have on the location of the crash is "near Pirot".  This would be very close to the straight line route from Giurgiu back to Cerignola that the pilot was trying to fly.  I believe that the aircraft must have crashed into the mountains since they were not able to climb over them.

I was hoping that there might be Bulgarian newspaper or other archives from the date that might provide more information on where the crash actually occurred.  I had also thought that hikers in these mountains might have some awareness of an old World War II crash site such as this.

Again, I appreciate your interest and would be very grateful for any help or suggestions that you can provide.

I found something about air battles on that day. So far nothing about a plane crashing without being attacked by our fighters.

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

The B-24 Liberator was operated only by the US Army Air Force and the British Royal Air Force; have you tried contacting any of their historical networks for any information?

Cynic
Expat Team

Basically the available information in Bulgarian is the following:

"
On June 23, 1944, after the bombing of oil refineries in Giurgiu, Romania, American planes flew over Ruse and dropped 20 incendiary bombs over the city at about 9:50 a.m. Against the 600 Allied bombers and 200 fighters flying over the western borders of Bulgaria, 34 Messerschmitt 109 G-2 and G-6 planes took off from 2/6 and 3/6 Orlyak.
Lieutenant Stoyan Stoyanov leads 18 fighters from 3/6 Orlyak. In the ensuing air battles, they managed to shoot down a B-24 Liberator bomber, which landed forcibly near Tetovo (Macedonia). Lieutenant Boris Damev and Lieutenant Evgeni Tonchev damaged 2 more bombers. NCO Hristo Toshkov, at the risk of running out of fuel, managed to shoot down another liberator near Pirot and landed in an emergency at Nis Airport. All members of the group successfully landed at Bozhurishte Airport.
"

B-24 H, serial No. 42-52678, pilot: 2L Charles Crane ??

@kristiann

I am very sorry that it has taken this long for me to see your reply!

The summary you sent may very well describe the demise of my father's aircraft.  That is the exact mission that they were on and they were reported downed near pirot.

What is the source of your information?  Is it possible that it could lead to additional news?

Dennis

@kristiann

Yes,  That's it!

@sagedm

Everything is possible, but it's been 3 years since my post. .... S.o. has to do the whole digging again.

I would appreciate it greatly if you can direct me in some way to the source of the information that you provided.  It is clearly my father's aircraft that is described as being shot down by Bulgarian fighters rather than damaged by flak.

Dennis

I understand but I do not have it. Three years is a long time and I do not keep any files about this. As I said before s.o. has to do the whole digging again. At least there's part of the information which I translated back then.

    Yes.  And I greatly appreciate your previous efforts to find this information.  It is very specific to my father's aircraft and totally different than our prior understanding of how his B-24 went down.  I am very sorry that I missed your original reply.  I will be continuing my research hoping to find exactly where the aircraft crashed.

    Thank you again for your kind assistance.

@sagedm

You can also try to do some digging yourself. Based on the information I found back then. Should be helpful.