Air battle over Hana Region
On Dec 17, 1944 2/Lt Rountree landed with his damaged P-38 Lightning No 44-24666 between the village of Kralice and the town of Prostejov. His plane burnt and its pilot was made POW.
The damage had been done to his P-38 by Me 109s and Fw 190s that attacked the B-24s over the town of Prerov. The buch of the heavies was heading to the Odertal and Blechhammer syntetic plants in the area of Silesia. The Libs of No 461 BG flowing at the end of the bunch were downed by 35 – 40 Luftwaffe fighters between the towns of Prerov and Olomouc. No 42-51319 over the village of Kokory, 42-78671 over Rokytnice, 44-41016 over Troubky and 42-52025 over the western part of Olomouc named Neredin.
The event is mentioned by Martin W. Bowman on No 93 of his book Consolidated B 24 Liberator published by the Crowood Aviation Series in 2004.