On a wooded trail.

The memorial consists of a boulder bearing a commemorative plaque and an info sign. The plaque is written in Czech and has the portrait of Sgt Payne. To the left of the boulder is an information panel, written in English and Czech, containing the history of the crash and Sgt Paynes fate. The monument marks his landing spot.

The memorial remembers Sgt. Russell I. Payne, a crew member on the B-17 Flying Fortress Snafuperman (42-107118) , of the 20th Bomber Squadron, 2nd Bombardment Group. 15th US Air Force, flying out of Italy who died of serious injuries after landing in this area when his aircraft was shot down at Kuty in Palkovice.  Sgt Payne was a Waist Gunner on the B-17, not a "Pilot" as the memorial indicated.

The B-17 was shot down during Mission 263 of the 2nd Bomber Group to bomb the Moravska Ostrava fuel complex and was part of what has become known as the "Air Battle over White Carpathians".

Fellow crewmate SSG Irving Katz was also killed in action and is remembered on the Sgt. Irving Katz Memorial -B-17 'Snafuperman' (42-107118) Mission 263 located at Site: Celadna.

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

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

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.

Source of photos:
- Lukas B
- Google Maps

Source of information: https://www.leteckabitvakarpaty.cz/bitva/

On the commemorative plaque:

V téchto místech padl

dne 29. 8. 1944

americký vojenský pilot

RUSSEL I. PAYNE

English translation:

In this place he fell

on 29 August 1944

the American military pilot

RUSSEL I. PAYNE

On the info sign:

PAMÁTNÍK LETCE R. I. PAYNE 

Dn 29. srpna 1944 byl v Palkovicích, v prostorách louky nad místní ásti Kúty sestelen americký pilot Russel L Payne, který s padákem vyskoil z hoícího letadla B-17 G FLYING FORTRESS. I kdy enevská konvence zakazovala stílet na letící parautisty, pesto nmetí vojáci, kteí mli, v okolí obce cviení, na nho stíleli. Americký pilot dopadl na zem tce zrann a krátce po dopadu zemel. Hoící letoun havaroval. o nkolik minut pózdji v lesním porostu u Metylovic na úpatí Ondej-níku. Na zbývajících 9 vyskoivích letc, kteí se pokusili o útk, uspoádalo zátah nmecké Jagdkomando Ruhsam a vechny letce dopadlo. Jednoho zastelili a dalí odvezli do zajateckých tábor, kde zstali a do konce II. svtové války.

Ostatky amerického pilota byly v roce 1944 pohbeny v Palkovicích. V roce 1946 byly exhumovány, pevezeny do USA a znovu pohbený na Arlingtonském národním hbitov ve Washingtonu, kde jsou pohbeny významné' osobnosti amerických djin a vojáci, kteí padli v boji za vlast. 

THE MEMORIAL R. I. PAYNE 

American pilot Russel I. Payne was shot down in a meadow above the local area of "Kuty" in Palkovice on August, 29th, 1944. Payne parachuted from the flaming B-17 G FLYING FORTRESS" aircraft. Despite the Genevan Convention which forbids shooting at flying paratroopers, German soldiers who had military exercises in the surrounding municipality shot him anyway.

The American pilot landed seriously injured and died shortly thereafter. The flaming aircraft crashed only moments later in forest underbrush close to Metylovice on the Ondrejnik foothill. The Jagdkomando Ruhsam German commando troop organized a roundup for the 9 remaining bailed-out pilots and captured all of them. The Germans shot one pilot and transported the others to cages where they stayed until the end of the World War II.

The American pilot 's remains were entombed in Palkovice in 1944. In 1946 they were exhumed, transported to the USA, and entombed again in the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, where significant American historical figures and soldiers killed in combat have been entombed.