From a Liberator bomber of Goldener Sonntag 1943

[Giorgio Pietrobon]

Dear Friends: I ask for your help in identifying and interpreting a little plate found on the crash site of a Liberator bomber, lost on December 19, 1943, Arabba area, Italy.
Small, folded, fragile and with fire marks, the only legible parts are: the number at the top: NO 42 - 11803, then ASS'Y ORDER NO 40427 (?), RADIO and little else.
If you have a similar wreck I ask you to post photos, hoping it will be more readable in the different parts, as an aid to integrate mine and allow me to understand its function. Thanks very much.

Giorgio Pietrobon, 1943, Treviso , Italy . [email protected]

 

[Giorgio Pietrobon]

Dear Friends: I ask for your help in identifying and interpreting a little plate found on the crash site of a Liberator bomber, lost on December 19, 1943, Arabba area, Italy.
Small, folded, fragile and with fire marks, the only legible parts are: the number at the top: NO 42 - 11803, then ASS'Y ORDER NO 40427 (?), RADIO and little else.
If you have a similar wreck I ask you to post photos, hoping it will be more readable in the different parts, as an aid to integrate mine and allow me to understand its function. Thanks very much.

Giorgio Pietrobon, 1943, Treviso , Italy . [email protected]

 

[CATCH 22]

Hi Giorgio,
I cant' answer your questions directly, but just to add a small detail: we have discussed in a similar thread that the words ASS'Y. PART denote that this is and assembly part. With other words this is a piece of a bigger element in the a/c. I think the letters before ASS'Y are MFG'S or MFR'S. These abbreviations are commonly used for "manufacturer's".
The letter and number in the middle are interesting - I see TYPE A-3 SP...? The first big element designated A-3 that comes in mind is the Martin upper turret used on B-24. Could be something else as well.
Cheers!

 

[Giorgio Pietrobon]

Dear Catch 22 : Thanks for your interesting help.

My little plate is made of copper, attempts to clean it risked breaking it.
I dug it on the site where an unknown B-24 D crashed, 10 US Aviators all KIA but without names , bomber certainly belonging to either the 98th Bomb Group or the 376th BG, both on mission Sunday 19 December 1943 ("Goldener Sonntag" in Austria and Germany - see web) with Target the Messershmitt Aeronautical Plant in Augsburg, Bavaria. This Liberator was olive green, with a ball turret, so one of the last nearly 100 Model D in production in 1942.

The American Archives could not help me study the case. I am looking for the Serial Number.
It flew a short distance in formation from the famous B-24 D "Sandman" bomber, also shot down, which I spotted in 2002 again in the Dolomites Mountains ,Belluno Province.

file:///C:/Users/Giorgio/Desktop/SANDMAN%20nelCuoresett19/SALVO%20Vecchi%20File%20&%20Storie/Estesa%20-%20%20Story%20of%20Sandman.pdf
http://www.corvara.eu/system/web/zusatzseite.aspx?menuonr=224358304&detailonr=224358393&sprache=3

 

[Giorgio Pietrobon]

The correct way to find the Sandman ' Story is following , sorry ! G.

 

[Giorgio Pietrobon]

E per le Ricercatrici/Docenti & Ricercatori italiani : vedi allegati in lingua. Sempre sul "Sandman" , un mistero per 60 anni risolto grazie al dono di un relitto codicizzato. Ricostruzioni che interessano Studenti delle Superiori : # G.Pietrobon in Facebook > Istituto Tecnico Aeronautico Fleming di Treviso.

 

[warehamlad]

Giorgio,
if you are certain of the date and that it was a B-24D, then only one aircraft matches this description, 42-41175.
From 376BG/512BS, 9 of the crew baled out and were captured, the Co-pilot was killed, 2nd Lt Fred Kapche.
MACR 1607 covers the loss and contains completed casualty questionnaires from the survivors.
The pilot claims that they were hit from above by another B-24 on the right wing which disabled the aircraft and that it crashed near Canazei.

Sean