Re: Reliability of the MACR's by date

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Comments:: : : Hello, : : : are the MACR's reliable to the date a plane was lost? : : : Were really all missing planes registered and listed : : : in the MAC-Reports under the correct date on which : : : they got lost? : : : An eye-witness told me and he has sworn, that he saw : : : two B-17 crashing on 7/7/44 near Egeln. : : : (he knows the visible difference between a B-17 and : : : a B-24!) : : : The wrecks lay then for some days in the fields as he told. : : : Could it be true? : : : There is no B-17 crash near Egeln reported in the : : : MACR's for this date. : : : Regards : : : Günter : : Hi Gunter, : : I can't say for certain that MACR dates are correct, but will give the benefit of doubt that they are correct, for the most part. There were many instances of planes going down where MACRs were not issued. In the instance you cite, was this friendly occupied territory or still under eneny control? If that is the case, the planes would not have been issued a MACR. Many planes landed on the continent in such places. There are probably other reasons also but butI think this is the primary reason. : : Vic : Hi Fellows, : I checked The Mighty Eighth Combat Chronology for 07/07/1944 losses. It does have four B-24s crashing at Egeln, Germany on that date. Two (42-52517 and 42-110028) were assigned to the 392nd BG and two (44-40050 and 44-40156) were assigned to the 492nd BG. For all four crews, they are listed as either KIA or POW which sounds like they bailed over enemy held territory. One oddity is that there are two MACRs (7239 and 7218) listed for 42-110028. As far as the eyewitness saying that the planes were B-17s, it's been 62 years since WWII and recollections can be fuzzy (the "Fog of War"). There are probably translated copies of German reports in the MACRs which describe the type of planes wfich crashed at Egeln. GEORGE D. KASPARIAN

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