B-17G #44-8186 'Sugar Report' Crewmen Monument
Details:
On the north side of the road.
Monument
A roughly hewn stone monument with a rectangular plaque at its center commemorating the crew of B-17G #44-8186, nicknamed “Sugar Report,” who made an emergency landing near this site on December 26, 1944. The plaque, written in Slovak and English, lists the names and ranks of the crew members and was installed on November 21, 2019, by the village of Hatalov and Pavol Hornák.
On December 26, 1944, the B-17G “Sugar Report” from the 301st Bomb Group sustained heavy flak damage during a bombing mission over Poland, forcing the crew to manually release bombs and divert toward Soviet-controlled territory. Pilots executed a successful emergency landing near Hatalov, Slovakia, where the crew was aided by locals and Soviet forces. All ten airmen survived and were repatriated after spending 51 days in the region.
Source of information: kronika-airwarsk.blogspot.com, www.dnes24.sk
Source of photos: Pavol Hornák
Monument Text:
Nedaleko tohto miesta, dna
26. 12. 1944
núdzovo pristála posádka
amerického bombardovacieho lietadla
Boeing B-17G-50-VE (S/N 44-8186) „Sugar Report“
32nd Bomb Squadron | 301st Bomb Group (H) | 15th USAAF
|
1st Lt. Ralph H. Kagi |
S/Sgt. Sinclair J. Murchy |
|
2nd Lt. William F. Wunderlich |
T/Sgt. Maurice Glassy |
|
1st Lt. Fred S. Meade |
S/Sgt. Matthew Polynack |
|
F/O Donald R. Burns |
S/Sgt. Robert D. Irvine |
|
1st Lt. Windsor F. Bounds |
S/Sgt. Robert E. Richards |
Obec Hatalov – Pavol Hornák
2019
English translation:
Near this location, on
December 26, 1944
the crew of an
American bomber aircraft
made an emergency landing
Village of Hatalov – Pavol Hornák
