In an open area just off the road.

The memorial is a white concrete form in the shape of a B-24 tail rudder, with an inscribed plaque mounted to the front; the memorial is about seven feet high.

The memorial remembers two airmen, Second Lieutenant John C. Fassnacht and Staff Sergeant Merton W. Haigh who died when their B-24 was shot down.

2LT Fassnacht and SSG Haigh were crew members on a B-24 (42-51964) “White Able”  of the 778^th (H) Bomber Squadron, 464^th (H) Bomber Group, 55^th Bomber Wing of the 15^th Air Force flying out of Pantanella Air Base in Italy on October 17, 1944 on a mission to bomb Vienna, Austria. (Reference Missing Aircraft Report {MACR} 9195).

Mission # 107 for the 464^th BG to the difficult target of Vienna. 

From the Slovak Aviation History Society  (Mr. Ján Babinèák) from the 464^th Bomber Group website:  Early morning on October 17, 1944 a B-24, Serial no. 42-51964 aircraft piloted by John Fasnacht took off from Pantanella AAB for their mission over Vienna.  After being hit over Vienna by AAA (Flak) they lost altitude and blew up in the air over the village of Zohor located just across the border with Austria.  The pilot, 2nd Lt. John Fassnacht, and the gunner, S/Sgt.Merton Haigh, were killed; while in flight; the others parachuted out and all were taken as POWs except for 2LT Cunningham who died upon landing but not found by the townspeople.

The Aviation society erected a memorial to those two US airmen who were not lucky enough to make it home.

The memorial is shaped as a battered rudder of a B-24 bomber.  It was erected in 1995 by the members of the Aviation History Society in Bratislava to honor the two dead airmen. The plaque on the monument served as their tombstone marker at their grave site in Zohor.  

After the communist take over in 1948, the plaque was recovered by a villager and hidden for the next 40 years; after the velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia (1989) the monument was erected to tell of the western allies contribution to win the war.  The memorial was refurbished in 2009 with the help of the American sculptor, Greg Marra.

The crew and status of B-24 (42-51964) was as follows: 

2LT John C.  Fassnacht, Pilot (Died in the plane crash)

2LT John W. Lindsay, Co- pilot (POW- Stalag 7A Moosburg)

2LT Richard J. Witt, Navigator (POW- Stalag Luft 3, Zagan & Stalag Luft 7, Bankau)

2LT Robert F. Cunningham, Bombardier; (Died after bailing out; not immediately recovered)

T/SGT John R. Lonsdorf, T/Sg.; Engineer  (POW- 13D LUFT 4 & 6 7A NURNBURG)

S/SGT John Krogstadt, Gunner;  (POW)

T/SGT Lyndle K. Clark, Gunner; (Stalag Luft 4 Gross-Tychow)

 T/SGT James T. Hutchinson, Gunner; (POW)

S/SGT Merton W. Haigh, Gunner (Died in plane crash)

S/SGT Raymond L. Hadden,  Gunner (POW- Stalag Luft 4 Gross-Tychow)

The text on the plaque is written in Slovakian.  The monument includes the symbol of the 15^th Air Force and the plane serial number.  The text reads:

 251964

VOJACI LETCI USA

MERTON HAIGK.

JOHN FASSNACHT.

ZOM. 17. OKT. 1944.

KTORÍ OBETOVALI SVOJE

ŽIVOTY ZA OSLOBODENIE ČSL.

REPUBLIKY.

The translation:

 251964

US airmen

MERTON HAIGH (Spelling error)

JOHN FASSNACHT,

who  died on Oct. 17, 1944

giving their life for liberation

of the Czechoslovak Republic.