Due to bad weather over the air bases of No 8 USAF in England its bombers were grounded on that day. That is why the Luftwaffe focused its aircraft on the heavies of No 15 USAF from Italy. Thirty Fw 190 of A8 and A7 variants and from fifty to sixty Me 109G10s and 14s downed ten B-24s, one P-38J, a P-39L and one P-51C over the territory of Moravia and Slovakia on that day. Eight more Libs, two Forts, one Lightning and a Mustang were lost due to flak, Luftwaffe fighters or mechanical kinks. The Luftwaffe lost at least fifteen Fockewulf 190s and Messerschmit 109s due to return fire of the AGs or escoting fighters. Twenty seven of them wrecked on the Moravian and Silesian soil. Further twenty one Me 109s failed to return, some of them tank dry.
The crews of No 461 BG´s 231 heavies were ordered to make bomb raid on the Odertal syntetic oil refinery. The mission was aborted by thirty four of them due to their mechanical defects prior to No 300 Jagdgruppe´s assault. Fifteen more were downed and 182 reached the target.
No 300 JG Jadgruppe 300 took off from Borkheide, Loebnitz, Jueterborg and Reinsdorf action stations. Vectored by the Doeberitz ground control station nr Berlin. Some Fw 190A8s were armed not only by two 13mm cal MGs and two 20mm cannons, but also by two of 30mm ones. Gunpower of some of them consisted of 20mm cannons only, heavy 30mm cal cannons were replaced by lighter 20mm ones in some others Fw190A8s. Despite the weight of their arms and additional armour these planes had better chance dogfighting with American escort in comparison with the Steinbock variant weighing over five tons.
No JG300 gained height and instructed flew eastwards against the heavies. The first two bundles of Libs were passed by them. The Luftwaffe fighters turned back after the third group and attacked the Libs of No 461 BG of No 49 BW south of Prerov from behind and 5 and 7 o´clock. AGs opened fire. No 682283 Fockewulf 190 A8 was shot down and wrecked near the hamlet Hruska in the Prostejov county about twenty kms SW of Prerov. Mr Novak ran to her crashsite from the village of Obedkovice. He recalled a pilot´s left hand torn off with his wrist watch. Due to clouds dogfighting could not be seen from the ground.
Three B-24s of No 461 BG were hit by shells of 20 and 30mm cannons as well as 13mm bullets fired at by Fw 190s. Also two twin-engined escort fighters P-38 Lightning from No 48 and 37 sqns of No 14 FG of No 305 Fighter Wing were lost. No 42-68073 flown by 2ndLt David E. Miles was downed over Vinary nr Prerov. 2nd Lt Rountree landed his damaged 44-24666 near a Prostejov – Kralice road. Meanwhile the crewmen of 42-786714 captained by 1st Lt James T. Creekmore bailed out near Rokytnice and ones of 42- 51319 with 1st Lt Frederick D. Capalbo at the controls did so between Rokytnice and Kokory. The third Lib captained by 2nd Lt Thomas West did not make it much farther westwards. This 44-41016 exploded over Troubky.
42-52025 flown by Gerald R. Smith was shot down over Olomouc and her front fuselage section landed on a cemetery in the western outskirts of Neredin. 44-41158 captained by 1st Lt Hailey wrecked in the former army training area Libava nr Kozlov. Three Libs belonging to Nos 765, 764 and 767 Sqns changed their course eastwards over Prerov and intended to cross the frontline. Also these 42-50953 captained by 2nd Lt Crossman, 42-51324 of K. B. Smith and 41-28913 captained by 1st Lt Galvan were downed. The first B-24 near Palacov, the second near Omsenie in Western Slovakia and the third one as far as near Roznava. Some Me 109Gs ran out of fuel chasing these Libs so fiercely.
As the attack proceeded also two B-24s of No 484 BG formed in No 49 BW´s first bundle. 42-50934 captained by 1st Lt Charlese A. Himmler belonging to No z 824 Sqn and 2nd Lt Rodger A. Martin´s 42-51835 of 825 one landed not far from each other near Libina and Vaclavov. No 300 took huge losess of an alarming extent on Dec 17 1944. This unit was unserviceable on the following day.
An only crewman suceeded in escaping. An 42-51319´s AG Cpl Frederick Hughes was provided with shelter by a forester Stan Jakubcik /Yakkubcheek/ . The latter was nabbed by the Gestapo in on Mar 23 1945 and Hughes moved to the Brodek nr Prerov sugar refinery premises in care of the Himrs. He lived to see liberation by the Red Army troops in early May 1945. An navigator and a co-pilot of 44-41016 1st Lts Qualman and Kasold went on foot seventy kms eastwards for five days and nights. They did intend to join partisan groups in the Beskydy Mts.
Thanks to Mr Jan Hlavacka, Jaroslav Schoen from the Prerov branch of the Czech Airmen Association and the others a meeting of not only three participants of this battle was held in Prerov in late Oct 2003. A former No JG300´s CO Lt-Gen Guenther Rall had promissed to come and wished to meet Lt- Gen Frank Perina there. The event was welcomed by the mayors both Troubky and Rokytnice and backed by the OLIMEX Co., Czech Airlines Co, top brass of the Czech Rep´s Air Force, No 33 Helicopter Wing´s CO and a Territorial Defence Army HQ.
On Oct 29 2003 a talk with Thomas Qualman, Oliver Hommert and Hjalmar Johansson from No 461st BG as well as the both Lt-Gens mentioned above was held at the Zelatovicka St barracks in Prerov. 2nd Lt Thomas Qualman was a navigator of the Lib of a serial number 44-41016 that exploded over Troubky at noon on Dec 17 1944. He failed to return from his tenth mission. During it Tom´s electric suit went out at 24 th ft and Siberian winter of fourty Celsius below. So he called 2nd Lt Thomas ´Pappy´ West intending to join both the pilots on a flight deck and thaw out there. Pappy nodded. Qualman crawled three times on his fours over a bombay to get all his navigation aids up on the flight deck. Fourty five minutes prior to reaching IP a tail gunner SSSGT Joseph G. Mergo opened fire at Fw190s. 22-41016 was hit in two seconds and a mid fuselage section was aflame three ones later. The ship went into spin and its torque made standing up and fastening a chute more complicated for and all the crewmen who survived the hail of bullets. In addition they could not bail out via a bombay because a nose gunner wasn´t able to open a door between a flight deck and bombay though doing his best. They were trapped inside. A blinding flash ensued.
2nd Lt Qualman came round while flying on his back at 26500 ft. One of his boots gone a sock only on. He could not reach his chute ripcord at right. He had put this pack on upside down on the flight deck so the ripcord was at left. He succeeded in pulling the silk. He could not see any more chutes while descending to the ground. He landed into a woods nr Troubky.
Silk of his chute was caught on three tree tops and Tom was about fifty feet over the ground. He made a try to swing and bounce, but the leg traps of his harness did harm to his loin like a knife. Luckilly something above him gave way and Qualman descended to six feet off the ground. He was afraid of spending a night there. Three approaching boys were spotted by him. One of them took a knife out of his pocket. Tom had no idea whether they were Germans or not. One boy gave another a boost so that this knife could be passed to an airman within his reach. Silk strands were cut off by Tom and he fell on the ground and the boy passing the knife to him. Asking and gesticulating Tom learned he was on the Czech territory and the Gestapo Secret police are nearby.
The boys left and Qualman walking through the woods came across the 2nd Lt Edmund A. Kasold co-pilot. They walked eastwards. The first night they were given something to eat and dried their wet clothes at a house owned by the Kratochvils at Bochor near Prerov. They were provided with shelter in a hay barn of Mr Stan Hosak - Mr Joe Brazda´s uncle for that night. Joe brought something to eat for them. He also charted a plan of their walk towards the Beskydy Mts. The airmen intended to join partisan groups in that area. They went on the following evening guided by Joe Brazda. They crossed a Prerov – Brno and Prerov - Breclav railway track guarded by Germans. Proceeding in two to the Beskydy Mts, they shown several times a message in Czech writen by Mr Brazda to local residents. Nobody gave food or shelter to them. On 23rd evening after seventy km walk they were run down. Mr Pavel Smilek nicknamed Povalsky residing a lonely house near Liptal was shown this message by them. He took both to a house of family Mrnustik due to Fan´s command of English. Given hot meal Tom and Ed went to bed there. But at two a.m. they were woken up because of German soldiers combing for para agents. They had to leave for a woods staying there the whole day. The Mrnustiks sent a courier to partisans commanded by a Soviet Major Murzin whether these Americans could join them. The latter were refused. On evening of 24 the both were taken by Mr Mrnustik to his house for a meal and shown a letter in English by a local evangelical parish priest. Mr Valish was persuading Tom and Ed so that they should give themselves up to local Czech Gendarms. The parish clerk pre-arranged the crewmens´ picking up at the Liptal Evangelical Church by those ones on evening of Dec 24. Qualman and Kasold were taken by them to a German local office where they spent the night from Dec 24 on 25. On 26 were both escorted to Vsetin and interrogated there. On the following day they left for No I Frankurt am Main Interim Dulag POW camp. Though was Jan Valis /Vallish/ slated for his decision after WWII, Qualman´s and Kasold´s chances to survive there were higher in spite of their spending six days in the Dulag´s solitary confinement in a unheated cell. Following the end of hostilities Tom authored ´The story of a crewman of a B 24 Liberator bomber on a mission against a target in Germany WWII´.
Cpl. Oliver Hommert as a tail gunner of a Lib captained by Cpt. Marion Hammet belonging to No 827 Sqn of No 824 BG eyewitnessed attack on No 461 BG on Dec 17, 1944. Asked by one of the attendees how brisk this assault was, he replied that Nos 42-51319, 42-78671 and 44-41016 had been going down consecutively as one could snap their fingers. A nose gunner Hjalmar Johansson failed to return from his maiden mission, made POW. A fighter ace of the Battle of France Lt-Gen Perina had his speech at the end of the meeting. Fight is over and it is time to shake hands each with other.
Memorials and plaques
1/ On Feb 14, 1948 the former was unveiled at the Troubky upon Becva by the Foreign Affair Minister Jan Masaryk. It is dedicated to seven crewmen of a Lib of 44-41016 serial number.
- 1st Lt Thomas „Pappy“ West – a pilot
- 1st Lt Thomas M. Noesges – a bombardier
- SSGT Thomas E. Deibert – an armourer-gunner
- SSGT Joseph G. Mergo – a tail gunner
- SSGT Roy L. Doe – a nose gunner
- SGT Frederic H. Gaul – a Flight Engineer
- CPL Frank C. Yesia – a ball gunner
2/ A memorial dedicated to two crewmen of 42-78671 and 42-51319 was unveiled behind a Vrbovec lonely house just next to a raiway track south of Rokytnice on Dec 15 2001. The corpses of the latter landed here.
- SGT W. J. Hayes – an AG
- SGT Frank Dansererau – an AG
- SGT W. C. Rundbacken – an AG
- SGT J. A. Villars – an AG
The name of Dansererau, who was of Canadian nationality, can be also seen on a plaque on a wall of the Dluhonice Local Cem. His corpse landed at this village just next to Prerov prior to noon of Dec 17
3/ Almost unreadable at the Kokory War Victim Memorial is the name of
- SGT Mc Quire – an AG
4/ A memorial dedicated to five crewmen of 42-52025 was unveiled in the Neredin Cem on Dec 16 2011. The ship´s mid fuselage section landed on this spot.
- 1st Lt Arthur H. Carlssson – a bombardier
- SGT Abraham P. Abrahamson – an AG
- SGT Edwin L. Howard – an armourer-gunner
- SGT Morris R. Goldman – a radio operator
- CPL David D. Brewer – a nose gunner
5/ To four AGs of 42-50953 near the village of Palacov.
A picture of B 44-41016´s crew is No 635 - HERE
A Memorial at Troubky is No 697 - HERE
Assistance of Mr Jan Mrnustik, Mrs Drahoslava Mrnustikova-Hucikova and Mr Jan Valis a great nephew of the parish clerk is much appreciated.
R&R :
17. 12. 1944….war airmen recall…. by Jan Hlavačka, Jaroslav Schoen
Star over the Ore Mts by Martin Vesely - The Nase vojsko Publ 2005
Air battle over Slavicin by more authors - The Slavicin Region History Club
www.letecka-historie.cz/Neredin-Smith
www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/1100552743-pratelstvi-na-zivot-a-na-smrt/ - filmed in 2003
NOTE :
Vit Himr´s brother named Jaroslav DFC was Cz No 313 Sqn´s CO from June 24, 1942 to Sep 24, 1943 KIA. A street was named after him at the Prague Cerny most housing estate.