Aug 29, 2005 Slavicin
We set out into the area seeded with the highest amount of American bombers` crashsites downed in Moravia in such a small area on Aug 29, 1944 - the town of Slavicin in the Zlin Region not far from the Slovakian border - on purpose via the village of Velehrad.
North of Velehrad, towards the hamlet of Salas opposite the T-junction to the campsite, a B 17`s crashsite was found by us. It was pouring cats and dogs and so having lit a candle at the Memorial we hurried to the town of Slavicin.
In the local Museum of Slavicin was to be held a meeting with the veteran of the 2nd BG`s No 20 BS Joseph J. Owsianik. He was downed at the village of Rudice nr Slavicin and two crewmen met their death. All nine ships of No 20 BS flying at the tail of the bunch were shot down. The bombers headed for the Ostrava marshalling yard full of tankers as well as the Privoz refinery. Apart from these nine ones, the No 915 Lib of No 429 BS and No 369 B 17 of No 49 BS went down.
Following the pre-set tactics, the escorting P 51D Mustangs left the bombers over the Slovakian town of Trencin having been tasked with clearing the target area. The bunch should have been escorted by P39 Lightings, but these ones were held by dogfights with the Luftwaffe fighters over Lake Balaton. The bombers were suddenly unprotected and Fw 190s and Me 109s struck nearly at once.
The first B 17 went down even within the Slovakian border and the other ones on the territory of Moravia. The attack was so fierce, that in three B17 ships shot down just beyond the Slovakian border there was an single survivor. Only return of the Mustangs alarmed by the No 20 BS`s crews prevented the bunch from further disaster.
The Museum Slavicin is situated over the Main Square at the Misarek St. open on Wednesdays from 1 to 4 pm and Sundays from 2 to 5 pm.
Email address- kultura@mesto-slavicin.cz
Listening to the participants of the meeting was quite moving, some of them remembered the Owsianik`s landing in the field nr Rudice.
The veteran signed to all of us and going out, he used his walking frame. Such courage for going to Europe at his age and state of health deserves bowing. After the meeting as Mr Owsianik as we departed for the village of Sanov where Mr Zitnik runs the Museum in the building of an former nursery school , where not only wrecks of the No 096 ship downed near Sanov on display are, but also the ones from other crash sites. The Contact - Michal Zitnik No 108 Sanov, Post Office Slavicin or the Municipality email address- ousanov@volny.cz
Going there through the village, we passed the Memorial dedicated to the WWII`s victims where the B 17 piloted by the 2nd Lt Tayne L. Thomas is sculptured too.
This No 096 B 17 was downed by a rocket launched by a Luftwaffe fighter plane and only the skipper survived, though more crewmen had succeeded in taking the silk. An German customs officer shot dead an wounded crewman in the forest,another unhurt one was shot dead by a German machine gun, both incidents eyewitnessed by the locals. The Slavicin Region History Club had to date at least three times „ The Air Battle over the Slavicin Region" book re-printed. Contact : Ing Miroslav Kadlec, via the Slavicin Municipality Info Service 00420577342251
NOTE : 2nd Lt Tayne L Thomas escaped to Slovakia and assisted by the Slovaks who backed the Slovakian National Uprising that had broken out on the morning of Aug 29, he got on the Insurgents` Territory of the Central Slovakia.
He was airlifted to Italy on Sept 17, 1944 by one of two B17s landing at the Tri Duby aerodrome, together with SSGT Robert D. Donahue, also downed on Aug 29, 1944 near the village of Rudice, who escaped the Germans during their occupying the town of Trencin on Aug 30, 1944
 J m |
A Memorial dedicated to SSGT William J. Mack - Service No1609839 - is located within a sight of road linking the village of Velehrad and the hamlet of Salac, opposite to a campsite. KIA on July 7, 1944. |
| A gunner of No 159 B 17 G SSGT Joseph W. Owsianik at the meeting in the Slavicin Museum |  |
 |
A court of the Slavicin Museum |
| Also the B 17 G No 096 captained by 2nd Lt Tayne L Thomas is on the Wars Victims Memorial at the village of Sanov. |  |
|
|
NOTE
All the exhibits had been moved out of the building of a local kindergarten into a house in a village of Sanov. It was opened on April 2, 2016.
www.sanov-obec.cz/muzeum-letecke-bitvy-nad-bilymi-karpaty/ds-1023
incl. twenty four pictures of this museum