B-24 (44-41046) Crash Memorial -461st Bomber Group
Details:
In the town cemetery against the far wall in the center of the cemetery.
A beautiful gray marble grave site with a sculpture of a parachuting airmen on the upright portion of the grave.
Description of the grave by crewmember Noesges:
In the small village of Troubky, Czechoslovakia in a corner of a little Catholic cemetery stands a black Italian marble monument 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide with a life-size bronze likeness of Fred Gaul, our Put-Put engineer, descending in his parachute which did not open. Alongside the monument is an 18 foot flag pole of the same material with a cross at the top. The people of Troubky vowed to fly the American flag every July 4th and December 17th in memory of the six young men buried here.
The grave includes the Isolated Burials (ISOB) of three crewmates of a B-24 (44-41016). Six of the crew were killed in the plane crash; 4 survived. The grave site remembers the six who perished in the crash. The grave originally included the bodies of five crew members, but two were repatriated in the early 1950s.
The three crewmembers still buried at this location include:
West, Thomas K ~ 1st Lt, Pilot, SD
Doe, Roy L ~ Sgt, Nose Gunner, MN
Yesia, Frank C, Jr ~ Corp, Bottom Turret Gunner, IL
The three airmen remembered on the monument who were repatriated were:
Deibert, Thomas E ~ S/Sgt, Top Turret Gunner, IL
Mergo, Joseph G ~ S/Sgt, Tail Gunner, PA
Gaul, Frederick H ~ Sgt, Engineer, PA
Airmen who survived the crash and not remembered (other than a picture of the crew mounted on the grave) include:
Kasold, Edmund A, Jr ~ 2nd Lt, Co-Pilot, CA ~ POW
Noesges, Thomas M ~ 2nd Lt, Bombardier, IL -POW
Qualman, Thomas W ~ 2nd Lt, Navigator, MI ~ POW
Ross, Trefry A ~ S/Sgt, Waist Gunner, CA ~ POW
Story of B-24 (44-41016):
On December 17, 1944 B-24J (44-41016) piloted by 1LT Thomas West, flying out of Torretta, Italy as part of the 765th Bomber Squadron, 461st Bomber Group, 49th Bomber Wing, 15th Airforce, on a raid to bomb the Odertal Oil Rifinery in Germany. The formation was attacked by enemy aircraft and several planes were shot down. This plane crashed near Troubky in the present-day Czech Republic. Six of the crew perished; 4 were able to parachute to safety and were captured. This was the crews 10th mission together. (Missing Aircraft Report {MACR} 10636).
See this site for ISOBs from Crewmembers West, Doe and Yesia.
Other sites associated with this mission and other crash memorials on December 17, 1944:
Site Olomouc-Neredin, Memorial: B-24 (42-52025) 'Arsenic and Lace Crash Memorial -461th Bomber Group
Site Palacov Memorial: B-24 (42-50953) "The Flying Finger" Crash Memorial -461st Bomber Group.
Monument Text:
The text on the grave is written in Czech and English. The text in English reads:
Here repose American heroes after their last start
Wanderer read and announce to all
We gladly died for that you live and are free
Dont forget us.
The upright marble slabs list the names and pictures of the men who perished in the crash:
Sgt. Fred H. Gaul
Sgt. Roy L. Doe
2nd Lt. Thomas K. West
Cpl. Frank C. Yesia
S/Sgt. Joseph G Mergo
S/Sgt. Thomas E. Deibert
Commemorates:
People:
Units:
15th Air Force
461st Bomber Group
49th Bomb Wing
765th Bomber Squadron, 461st Bomber Group (Heavy)
Resistance
US Army Air Corps
Wars:
WWII
Other images :