Plaque

Two metal panels that serve as commemorative plaques affixed on a standing metal frame with a roof. The plaques are written with a Czech inscription honoring and listing the names, ranks, and roles of the crew of the B-17G 43-38701. Near the plaques are an information board that contains detailed information about the accident, including copies of the "Missing Air Crew Report" / MACR / for this event, and a small fenced area that has small parts of the aircraft. After the war, a cross memorial was placed by a local, Mr. Chocholoušek, at the site of the impact, and a garden was built, in which the wreckage of the plane was.

April 19, 1945, was busy in the sky of occupied Czechoslovakia. The union of almost 200 B-17 bombers headed before noon from the west through Germany and western Bohemia to the area of Příbram. Furthermore, the union was to continue through Prague beyond its goal, which was the marshaling yard in Ústí nad Labem. It was above Příbram that the first contact of the 490th BG aircraft with the Luftwaffe aircraft took place in the afternoon. They were Me 262 Schwalbe units JG 7 from Prague-Ruzyně Airport. There was damage to the B-17G 43-38048, which later crashed in the village Sýkořice in the Křivoklát region. Another plane that was hit was the B-17G 43-38701. After the attack by the Me 262 plane in the Sedlčany area, the bomber was severely damaged. Three pilots were recorded from the deck of another plane, who managed to leave the devastated plane. But then the plane exploded. The plane completely disintegrated during the explosion and crash and fell to the ground scattered over a large area. The front part of the fuselage with two pilots landed near the settlement Hradišťko. The rear part of the hull with rudders ended up on a slope south of the village Sestrouň.

The pilots who managed to jump out of the plane left their luck only a little later than their friends who perished. Due to the fact that the large areas around Benešov were a training area for SS weapons, the pilots were captured soon after parachuting. They were taken to the headquarters of the training area at Konopiště Castle. Here they met with five captured members of the crew of another bomber - B-17G 43-38078, which was also hit in the Sedlčany area. The fate of all these pilots came true after their interrogation. At the order of the commander of the training area, Major General Alfred Karrasch, they were at about 10 pm on 19.4. pilots shot in the back. Their bodies were then taken away and buried about a kilometer west of Konopiště in the direction of Václavice. The event was investigated after the war, but the bodies of the pilots were not found until December 30, 1946.

Source of information and photos: www.leteckabadatelna.cz

Zde dopadly trosky kabiny ame-

rického bombardéru sestřeleného

nad naším krajem 19. dubna 1945

Boeing  B-17G

z 850. Bomb. Sq.

serial.č.43 - 38701

FLYING

FORTRESS

Posádka:

English translation:

Here was the wreckage of the cabin

of an American bomber shot down

over our region on April 19, 1945

Boeing  B-17G

 850th Bomb. Sq.

Serial no. 43 - 38701

FLYING

FORTRESS

Crew: