shot down

Hi! I live west of Cologne in Germany. My dad found a tire in the woods a long time ago that is said to be from a US shootdown. I'm also a private pilot, but this is too specific. Here P38s have been shot down, but it could also be another plane. It was 1944 or 1945. Düren is very close by...

My cousins grandfather flew aboard a ww2 american Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber nicknamed "The O-Bitch-u-airy Mary". I recall that it was shot down over France and he survived but most of his crew, dear friends of his, did not. There was a photo hanging in his house of the plane and the...