seesul
Senior Master Sergeant
Hello,
few days ago we commemorated the 66th anniversary of the air battle over White Carpathian mountains.
89 German fighters attacked lonely 20th Sqdn of the 2nd BG with two more laggers and shot them all down in 20 minutes. 8 of them crashed 5 to 40 miles away from my born town of Slavicin and one crashed landed in Hungary.
41 airmen were killed and 28 from them buried in a mass grave in my born town.
1 airman was saved by Czech family that was hidding him at their home at their great risk till the end of the war.
3 airmen escaped to Slovakia (all the crash sites were along the Czech/Slovak border) and were later evacuated from Banska Bystrica airport by 2 B-17s during the OSS secret mission on Sept 17, 1944.
All the rest (45 airmen) spent the rest of the war in POW camps.
Every year the citizens of some towns or villages commemorate the sacrifice of those young flyboys. Sometime with the survivors of the battle or their relatives, sometimes without them.
Perhaps last year we had 12 US visitors but no veteran...all of them relatives.
This year we had a very rare visit- one of the survivors, Mr Loy Dickinson from Denver, CO. Loy was aboard of B-17G, ser No. 42-97159, as a navigator. After he was shot down, one young guy named Mojmir Baca in age of 19 (the same age as Loy) found Loy in the woods and brought him home. The next morning this family was warned by a friendly policeman that someone knows that they have an American in their house. After that Loy decided to give up to Germans and went with Mojmir to the closest police station and spent the rest of the war at Stalag Luft I. Before he surrendered he gave his postal address to Baca family. After the war, in 1945, Loy sent his first letter to Mojmir Baca. They stayed in touch and Mojmir visited Loy in 1978 and Loy visited Mojmir 5 times. 66 years of friendship...
Loy´s 5th visit meant his attendance at 66th anniversary commemoration. Enjoy the pics, I´m only sorry for the pics quality, I´m not a good photografer.
P.S. Airframes and Rochie attended our last year´s commemoration so they will recognize some places. Sorry Terry, no pictures taken at Talafa pub this time...8)
few days ago we commemorated the 66th anniversary of the air battle over White Carpathian mountains.
89 German fighters attacked lonely 20th Sqdn of the 2nd BG with two more laggers and shot them all down in 20 minutes. 8 of them crashed 5 to 40 miles away from my born town of Slavicin and one crashed landed in Hungary.
41 airmen were killed and 28 from them buried in a mass grave in my born town.
1 airman was saved by Czech family that was hidding him at their home at their great risk till the end of the war.
3 airmen escaped to Slovakia (all the crash sites were along the Czech/Slovak border) and were later evacuated from Banska Bystrica airport by 2 B-17s during the OSS secret mission on Sept 17, 1944.
All the rest (45 airmen) spent the rest of the war in POW camps.
Every year the citizens of some towns or villages commemorate the sacrifice of those young flyboys. Sometime with the survivors of the battle or their relatives, sometimes without them.
Perhaps last year we had 12 US visitors but no veteran...all of them relatives.
This year we had a very rare visit- one of the survivors, Mr Loy Dickinson from Denver, CO. Loy was aboard of B-17G, ser No. 42-97159, as a navigator. After he was shot down, one young guy named Mojmir Baca in age of 19 (the same age as Loy) found Loy in the woods and brought him home. The next morning this family was warned by a friendly policeman that someone knows that they have an American in their house. After that Loy decided to give up to Germans and went with Mojmir to the closest police station and spent the rest of the war at Stalag Luft I. Before he surrendered he gave his postal address to Baca family. After the war, in 1945, Loy sent his first letter to Mojmir Baca. They stayed in touch and Mojmir visited Loy in 1978 and Loy visited Mojmir 5 times. 66 years of friendship...
Loy´s 5th visit meant his attendance at 66th anniversary commemoration. Enjoy the pics, I´m only sorry for the pics quality, I´m not a good photografer.
P.S. Airframes and Rochie attended our last year´s commemoration so they will recognize some places. Sorry Terry, no pictures taken at Talafa pub this time...8)
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