Crashed aircraft parts found

[Drifter206]

Hii all
Can you help me. I found these parts in my area from WW2 era and I'm searching for type of aircraft. I think it is B17 or B24 but not sure. Can somebody please tell me from which type are these parts.
















*WIXMOD-Charlie*: I fixed your links and amended the thread title

[rcaf_100]

Fixed the images for you
Edit: took the images off since Wixmod Charlie fixed the initial post.

Last edited by rcaf_100 on Wed Apr 12, 2017 4:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Pooner]

Great finds and welcome to the Board, Drifter206!

You are correct about B-24 Liberator remains. The walls of your nifty tractor pen appears to have been made of discarded wing flaps. The round item is a hydraulic systems accumulator bottle, and the Minneapolis-Honeywell tagged box bottom was the back of a C-1 autopilot controller that sat in the middle of the instrument board. You had a piece of exhaust section, 200 ampere generator, and some engine air induction system pieces too.

Nice finds. The p/n on the wing flap section there indicates your Liberator came from the Consolidated factory as opposed to having been Ford built.

Any back story you might have for the pieces? Crash recovery items re-purposed locally, perhaps or items purchased from a dismantling site in the area, hauled off and given new life? Do share.

Thanks for posting!

- Robert in PHX

[Mick G]

Wow, is this even legal? If anyone was lost their life, it should be left as a memorial. Pay some respect

[wendovertom]

Neat find! The back story would be great to hear!

Tom P.

[airnutz]

OMG, please change the heading. A friend of mine crashed their aircraft and I thought you were posting about them! 'Bout gave me a heart attack!

[mike furline]

Wow, is this even legal? If anyone was lost their life, it should be left as a memorial. Pay some respect

Owning scrap? Yes.

It looks like a bunch of scrap parts that have been laying around for years.

[Drifter206]

Thank you guys for info
I was thinking that it was B24J Liberator but I wasn't sure. I live in Croatia, Europe near town Dubrovnik (google it), and when I was a kid I heard lots of stories about downed aircraft in my area during ww2. Few years ago I started looking for those sites according to the stories from old people. I found up to 5 downed airplanes of axis and allies. Recently I found Ju52 (confirmed) and I'm still trying to confirm these others. During WW2 over my area there was bomber corridor to Ploesti raid from Italy. 15 Air force bombers with base in Foggia Italy.
This generator is special to me because It was built by Westinghouse and in that company use to work Nikola Tesla which is from my country. C1 autopilot is a miracle too because It was sort of high tech in those years. Those guys were flying with great guts.
Story about this site is bigger because these are parts removed from site and put in storage. On location I found tag and I contacted officials about it and It's in the process of confirming. As soon as I got the info I'll let you know.
sorry about my English It's not my native language.

[wendovertom]

Dubrovnik is a beautiful city - I guy I work with married a girl from there. I can imagine a lot of Bomb groups heading across the Adriatic on the way to bomb Polesti and other oil fields. Quite a collection - especially the flaps. The 461st (Torretto) and 464th Bomb group (Pantenella) trained in Wendover before going to the Foggia area - odd to think those may be parts of planes that trained and flew out of Wendover, Utah!

It will be interesting to hear more as you can share it!

Tom P.

[CoastieJohn]

Thank you guys for info
I was thinking that it was B24J Liberator but I wasn't sure. I live in Croatia, Europe near town Dubrovnik (google it), and when I was a kid I heard lots of stories about downed aircraft in my area during ww2. Few years ago I started looking for those sites according to the stories from old people. I found up to 5 downed airplanes of axis and allies. Recently I found Ju52 (confirmed) and I'm still trying to confirm these others. During WW2 over my area there was bomber corridor to Ploesti raid from Italy. 15 Air force bombers with base in Foggia Italy.
This generator is special to me because It was built by Westinghouse and in that company use to work Nikola Tesla which is from my country. C1 autopilot is a miracle too because It was sort of high tech in those years. Those guys were flying with great guts.
Story about this site is bigger because these are parts removed from site and put in storage. On location I found tag and I contacted officials about it and It's in the process of confirming. As soon as I got the info I'll let you know.
sorry about my English It's not my native language.

Hello Drifter,

Thanks for the interesting story. When you say you found a "tag", do you mean a name tag of an individual possibly from the aircrew? By the way, your English is just fine.

Thanks...John

[Drifter206]

Thanks for helping me with stuff in here. New guy don't know all the rules.
These are the parts recovered from crash site long ago. I recovered some of the stuff. About the tag I cannot tell you more now because I contacted national archive for check of possible crew MIA. Info very soon.

[CoastieJohn]

Thanks for helping me with stuff in here. New guy don't know all the rules.
These are the parts recovered from crash site long ago. I recovered some of the stuff. About the tag I cannot tell you more now because I contacted national archive for check of possible crew MIA. Info very soon.

I sent you a private message (PM). It should be in your inbox above.

[K5DH]

Drifter206, you have an amazing collection of B-24 parts there! Considering that they came from a crash site, the condition is remarkable. Good luck with the dog tag. Hopefully it can be identified and returned to the aviator's family.

Dubrovnik is indeed a lovely city! I was there about one year ago, my third visit. Friendly people, beautiful scenery, and good beer!

[mlenoch]

Terrific find! I am glad that these were identified.
My family is from a small town east of Zagreb: Veliki Zdenci. I was told that during the war a 4 engine bomber came down near the cemetery. The crew was immediately taken away by the local partisans ( likely all survived ). Then the towns folk came to look at the wreck, but the German troops arrived shortly to disperse the civilians and retrieve the armaments. After the troops left, the towns folk returned and began disassembling the airframe for their own use. During a 1971 visit to the town, I found O2 bottles being used as well buckets and large airframe panels as fence sections. I was too young at the time to make any aircraft type identification.
Might you have access to a record of a bomber in the Veliki Zdenci area?
Thank you,
Vlado
PS: My distant "uncle-in-law" was Civtan Galic.

[Tulio]

Wow, is this even legal? If anyone was lost their life, it should be left as a memorial. Pay some respect

Let's stop all kinds of digging throughout the planet:

Archeological, maritime, speleological, aeronautical, because more than likely through history, people have lost their lives, so the places should all be left as memorials.... right?

Saludos,


Tulio