Visiting and searching a B-17 Fortress crashsite

[Theodor]

Hi guys, I want to report about my expedition today!

It was planned for Monday, but the heavy rain that started during the weekend changed delayed it for a day.

But today, Tuesday morning, the sky was almost clear, nice and blue - this was the day - the cunning plan was launched!

The target - a small village about 50 km outside the Blgarian capital Sofia. On the road! The sky is promising a wonderful day:

[Theodor]

...sometimes it was quite foggy, but definitely not because of the weather... Did I say that I hate those trucks?

[Theodor]

In less than an hour, easy drive, nice road, I reached the village. I knew the site was in the hills above, but finding it alone was not even close to a good idea... So, headed directly to the village square, to the pub... tavern... you name it. Two tables of old men, playing chess.

Of course, my entrance intercepted the games. I immediately introduced myself and said I'm here for an aircraft that crashed during the war. And this was a lucky hit! One of the chess palyers turned to be one of the two witnesses!!! Only two boys did witness the crash event. That man and one classmate of him, who has passed years ago.

Uncle Asen is a great man, nice and helpful! He immediately told me the story. Then was eager to show me the spot of the crash. We drove to the end of the village, then through the meadows /no road, only the darker grass in the tracks showed me where to drive/, until a point where had to leave the car and go up the hills by foot 300-400 meters. There was no way that I would find it alone!

Here he is, uncle Asen, a retired builder and later village policeman, at the place where the the bomber crashed:

[Theodor]

Here goes the story:

The summer of 1944. Asen was a little boy, 10 years old, using the nice summer day to make a raid on the nice plums on the hills over the village. The times were interesting - it was war, oftenly they were seeing huge formations of heavy bombers, headed to attack the capital. And Bulgarian fighters - they witnessed a fighter attack over the other village nearby - the bomber exploded in the air, the wings were parted from the body, the airmen did not make it... Gathered in a cart, burried in the village... But that's another story.

The last bomber attack on the capital was on April 17th 1944. However the sky was still heavy loaded, in fact very heavy - huge formations flying from Italy towards the Romanian oil fields and the Romanian capital and then back.

That day Asen saw a single big bomber aircraft, coming from the East. The tale was like inverted T /so, it was a B-17, not B-24. Today I learned the approximate time of crash, so from now on will research about the story/. It was making circles, maybe looking where to land?

It almost disappeared, only the motors were heard in the distance. But them it appeared again. Flying very, very low, heading in the direction of little Asen. He got very scared. Immediately jumped off the tree and hide in the bushes, even started to cry. But curiosity was more than the fear... So, he stand up and watched. The aircraft started cutting the treetops in of the forest on the next hill. Suddenly the engines of one side could not fight the trees and fell of the aircraft. After a few seconds the whole aircraft hit the hill, starting to burn.

Villagers gathered there shortly later. Gendarmery forces also arrived. No pilots were found in the wreck. In a forest a few kilometers away were found opened parachutes - the airmen had saved themselves, the aircraft had flown further on its own. Asen did not know if the police and military units had later captured the airmen, or these had joined the partisans /some USAAF cews escaped this way/.

The gendarmery/army picked some parts. The villagers also looted the wreck - what was left from the big fire and the ammo explosions. Later a big cousin of Asen made a primitive oven and melted the whole remaining part of the aircraft and sold it for scrap metal

The sun was very hot, and the chess party was waiting. So, I returned uncle Asen to the village. He told me to stop for a while infront of his home and brought out these - he said that was ammo from the aircraft, he had quite many, but exploded them with the other kids /and there were no KIA from these games!!! /. He told me that the brass shell was longer, and thinner to the top, to fit the bullet, but he cut it for purpose long forgotten... But what do you think, is this US aircraft ammo? Marked 3, 43 and a star. He said these bullets are full of powder, he removed the tip of such bullets with plies and used the powder to make some kind of fireworks!!!

[Theodor]

As said, I am not sure for the brass casing, as a retired militia/policeman he may have it from other source, not from aircraft. I hope the markings will tell what it is.

As said, we stopped infront of his house, on the main road through the village. Then he pointed to the opposite side of the road: "See, there is a fan from the bomber there".

Wow!

The other side was higher, so the slope was reinforced with a stone wall. And the owner of the house in the yard over the road had used some part of the bomber in the base of the wall!

[Theodor]

According to Asen, this was a fan. He said it was big thing, half a meter of it was in the wall ahead. So, maybe some part of the cooling system, or air conditioner for the crew? Can be anything... The owners of the house were not there, he was afraid to take it out of the wall without permission. But he will ask them and if they agree, we will take it out of the wall and will fill the hole with stones. Lets hope they would not mind! I'll be back there soon

[Theodor]

So, I returned him to the chess play and then drove and climbed back to the crashsite.

In the picture above with him, he said that the bomber was where he is standing. My simple cheap metal detector remained absolutely silent. At some time I tohught it was broken, but then hit a 19th century hand forged nail 15 cm down in the soil. So, it was working, but the site was wrong! I headed to the right side of where Asen was standing for the picture. Nothing! Fortunately the place is wild and distant, so never found bottle stoppers and other junk, it was very clear!

Then, I started to the left of where Asen had shown me. And after only several steps, there was a piece of thick plexiglas on the ground!
He was wrong for only a few meters. And the detector immediately found some signal!!! Here was the spot:

[Eric K.]

I'm not sure of the casing but the actuall bullet itself sure does look like a .50 cal round.


Eric

[Theodor]

Moving the camera a little up, this is the direction from where came the bomber. Behing these trees must have been the part of the forest, through the treetops of which it made its way. And then crached... in my feet!

[Theodor]

So, I started circling the area that you are seeing ahead. Armed with a WW1 German or Austrian shovel /an ultra-helpfull tool!!!!! /. The detector was beeping from time to time, where it detected something I used the shovel and from right under the surface started to appear pieces of aluminum tin and pieces of aluminum cast thing!!! Small pieces, broken and torn from the crash and from the explosion of ammo and probably fuel, that followed.

[Theodor]

As you can see, not a big booty, nothing very spectacular, but I can not explain how happy I am with this historical find!!!!!!
Here are the things:

[Theodor]

Most parts are just fragments or tin. Only these can be identified roughly - this looks like a temperature or oil pressure gauge. Nest to is - a metal fitting part that used to hold two pipes or thick wires. Also a metal end of a fuel or oil pipe with nut. And a metal "bracelet" - either a spring from clock or some other cauge, or maybe a "cramp" /is this the word?/ to fasten a rubber pipe.

[Theodor]

A part of something made of cast aluminum. I think the pieces have belonged to the same part, a thick metal pipe was screwed in it at one side.

[Theodor]

More unknown parts...

[Theodor]

Well, that's all, folks! I could say it much, much shorter, but wanted to take you with me in the expedition

I hope later this summer to be back there. To try to obtain the "fan" from the wall and to do more detecting, probably there is still lots of debris up there...

Now it is time for paper history, knowing the location and the month, to try to find out which was the aircraft, what happened to the crew, when and how was the bomber damaged...

Thank you very much for the help Eric, here is a closeup of the bullet. It is long 5 cm and 7 mm. In inches, this must be about 2,24". Is it US round?