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1LT Whitehead Grave-Cenotaph Memorial (37th Fighter Squadron, 14th Fighter Group,)

<< Back to Ceske Budejovice- Dobra Voda Cemetery

Details:

In the town cemetery (Hřbitov); grave with a propeller on it.

 

Cenotaph


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:

Robert W. Whitehead

Units:

14th Fighter Group

15th Air Force

37th Fighter Squadron

37th Fighter Squadron, 14th Fighter Group

United States Air Force

Other images :