there are a lot of planes in fighter groups that are unaccounted for. names, call numbers, tail numbers, who piloted them, and and what became of them. this is one such plane. i searched the little friends of the uk and other sites but it is not listed anywhere. i had first hear about this plane years ago but actually found a picture. so she was real. it was a P 51D-10 named MILADY DIANE. the planes main pilot was Steve Wasylyk. Wasylyk is slated to have C5*X ( Bar over X ) 44-13621 PHILLIES DILLIE which he inherited from Merle Allen C5*X ( no bar ) Laura Dee. it does not say what date this assignment happened. what i know for sure was that this plane ( MILADY DIANE ) was Wasylyk's. That is him on her wing in the picture and i have the account placing him with that craft. the plane last flew Jan. 20, 1945. the pilot that day and his wing man were low on fuel and had no hope of making back to the uk. they made a beeline for the nearest us af base. the wing man was dangerously low so he put down in a farmers field. the french took him to the us af base the next day. this plane, which is also unaccounted for, was flown by Lloyd Zachariae who usually flew C5*Z 44-13578 Mom Smith's Little Angel. evidently he wasnt flying her that day. there is no record of him having 2 ac. MILADY DIANE made it to Reim-Champagne field which was occupied by the P 47s of the 9 AF's 373rd FG. it made the landing but skidded off of the snowy steel mat runway and plowed into a pile of frozen dirt. pretty much a total i would guess. I would like to get the C#s and tail numbers off of both those 2 ac but have come up empty. are there wreck reports that were generated for airbases? and where can they be viewed?I am currently trying to get in touch via facebook with of relatives of Mr. Wasylyk and will then try the same with Mr. Zachariae. anyways i figured you probably know more of where to find info than i do. any shred of info would be appreciated.
many thanks mhunt i have been trying to track down a relative of Wasylyk but as of now...not having much luck. was going to try for relatives of Zachariae next. good lead i will watch it later tonight.
Good luck with the whole thing - any chance there are mission reports from the Group anywhere? Only other thing I can think of is maybe one of the documents in the MACR for the other squadron loss that day.