1LT Robert Whitehead Grave-Cenotaph Memorial (37th Fighter Squadron, 14th Fighter Group,)
Details:
In the town cemetery (Hřbitov); grave with a propeller on it.
A gravesite with an inscribed plaque and a half of a P-38 propeller.
The memorial remembers First Lieutenant Robert W. Whitehead (37th Fighter Squadron, 14th Fighter Group) who was shot down and killed in nearby Srubec on on April 11, 1945 after a dogfight with a FW-190. 1LT Whitehead was buried in this spot until the late 1940s when his body was repatriated to the US. The local community still maintains the site as a cenotaph to honor 1LT Whitehead.
From The 14th Fighter Group Website:
Location, N. Of Strakonice, Czechoslovakia, Point Of Departure, Triolo, Italy. Hometown: Lake County, IN, killed in a dogfight on April 11, 1945 south-east of Ceske Budejovice, Czechoslovakia. 1/Lt Whitehead with his flight of the 37th Squadron, 14th Fighter Group, 15th USAAF, in P-38 (44-25720) had destroyed a couple of locomotives and railroad cars on a mission to the Munich, Germany area when he encountered a pair of FW 190s returning to the base from a fighter-bomber mission in Austria or Moravia. The winner was subsequently shot down by 1/Lt Whitehead's wingman 1/Lt Harry R Morris Jr. (Reference: Missing Aircraft Report {MACR} 13980)
The site where 1LT Whitehead crashed is also remembered. See this website, site Srubec, for more on the crash site.
Monument Text:
The text on the memorial reads:
-engraving of a P-38 Aircraft-
11.4.1945
Robert V. Whitehead
Pilot, U.S.A.
Commemorates:
People:
Units:
14th Fighter Group
15th Air Force
37th Fighter Squadron
37th Fighter Squadron, 14th Fighter Group
United States Air Force
Other images :