Shooting down of the bomber B-24H 42-64483 on 22 February 1944
United States Army Air Forces Consolidated B-24 Liberator · Shot down, break-up
From southern Italy to an unrecorded destination
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 10 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 11
- Survivors
- Unknown
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
- Aircraft type
- Consolidated B-24
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 42-64483-S
- Operator
- United States Army Air Forces
- Onboard fatalities
- 10
- Route
- From southern ItalyTo not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The shooting down of the bomber B-24H 42-64483 on 22 February 1944 is an event that occurred during the mission of an American bomber of the 343rd Bombardment Squadron of the 98th Bombardment Group of the 15th Air Force of the United States Army Air Forces over the Reichsgau Sudetenland in Germany. After being damaged by a German fighter, the aircraft exploded and its wreckage fell northwest of Bukovec in the southern Plzeň region. The eleven-member crew, with the exception of one gunner, was killed at the scene; the wounded gunner was captured and remained in captivity until the end of the war.
Damage to the aircraft and its crash
The Liberator designated 42-64483 of captain Lt. Merkl was hit by fire from a Bf 110G-2 of a non-commissioned officer of 6./ZG 1 and exploded in the air not far from Horšovský Týn. The wreckage of the aircraft fell onto snow-covered meadows in the valley of the Chuchla stream northwest of Bukovec, and a gun turret fell onto a field northeast of Šlovice. It is probably the first American aircraft destroyed during the Second World War on the territory of pre-Munich Czechoslovakia.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Czech Wikipedia article “Sestřelení bombardéru B-24H 42-64483 22. února 1944” (revision 26120256, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Czech Wikipedia article: Sestřelení bombardéru B-24H 42-64483 22. února 1944
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 26120256 · 2026-08-09 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q83313606
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- cs Wikipedia article "Sestřelení bombardéru B-24H 42-64483 22. února 1944" (page 1557082, revision 26120256), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Czech Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.