At the back of the cemetery, up the short hill.

The memorial is a large gray marble tomb with an inscriebd peice in the shape of a B-17 tail etched with the markings on the B-17 'My Baby'.  This memorial includes the names of four of 'My Baby' crew who were buried here after teh crash.  Another crew member was buired in Slavicin.

The monument remembers the four KIA crew of  B-17 (42-31473) of the 20th Bomber Squadron, 2nd Bomber Group, 15th US Air Force, which was shot down on August 29, 1944, during "Mission 263". Six of the ten crew of were killed in action, and four were taken as POWs during this "Air Battle over the White Carpathians".

On August 29, 2944, the 15th Air Force conducted "Mission 263",  a raid on the Moravska Ostrava industrial complex (current-day city of Ostrava). The 2nd Bomber group supported this mission flying from flying from Amendola Air Base, Foggia, Italy. as become known as the "Air Battle over the White Carpathians", nine B-17Gs from 2nd Bomber Group were attacked by 89 German fighters and 20 minutes later eight of them were shot down and crashed in Slovakia (1), Czech Republic (7) and one crash landed in Hungary.  41 US airmen lost their lives, 28 of them were buried in a mass grave in Slavicin. Four fliers evaded capture, and 55 airmen ended up in German POW camps. All the planes of the 20th Bomber Squadron were shot down that day. Missing Air Crew Reports (MACR) 8109.

The crew of the B-17 (42-31473) 'My Baby' Included:

Several of those killed during Mission 263 were buried in a mass grave in nearby Slavicin or Nová Boáca (Slovakia).   See the site Slavicin - Cemetery a for more about the mass grave there.

The 'My Baby' Crash Marker is located just over the border in Slovakia.  See Site Nova Bosaca -Woods.

The 'Lovely Ladies' and 'My Baby' Memorial is located nearby.  See Site Vyskovec- South.

Several museums in the area also remember this battle.  See sites: Sanov; Slavicin, and Bojkovice.

Search "Mission 263" for memorials and cenotaphs associated with this event on our website.

For more information, the  see the Air Battle over the White Carpathian website at: www.leteckabitvakarpaty.cz 

Special thanks to Mission 263 - Aug 29,1944 / Letecká bitva 29.8.1944 Facebook page & group for remembering this battle and for the several memorials that remember this mission.

The text on the plaque is in Slovak:

231473

TU BOLI POCHOVANÍ LETCI 15. USAAF, KTORI PADLI V LETECKOM BOJI
29.8.1944

S/SGT. EDWIN R. EVERETT
S/SGT. HAROLD SCHIRMER
SGT. CHARLES A. MUNDEN
SGT. ELMER J. PRUITT

Translation: The crew of the 15th Air Force plane killed in air combat and buried here on August 29, 1944.