B24 bomber wreck in the alpine mountains

[Gran Sasso]

Panzer-plates (1cm thick) - engine-protectors?

[Gran Sasso]

Panzer-plates (1cm thick) - engine-protectors?

Now with foto:

[Gran Sasso]

On the right the 3 impact-craters of the engines (each filled with remains) - the impact of the 4th enigine is just out of the foto (left of the cross, that´s on the left side of the foto). As this crater is so far away from the other 3, I guess the part of one wing - or at least one engine - seperated from the B24 shortly before the crash:

[Gran Sasso]

Iron pieces "frozen" in melted alloy:

[WalterB]

Fascinating. The countryside of your country is beautiful!!

[Gran Sasso]

Last view before descending:

[Gran Sasso]

Back to the valley (left) - in the background germanys highest mountain, the "Zugspitze", almost 3000 meters above sea-level.

[Gran Sasso]

Half way down - a view back:

[Gran Sasso]

Memorial in the village closest to the crash-site:

[Gran Sasso]

The germans who were involved in this battle:

[Gran Sasso]

The 6 bombers (including "ours") that came down on austrian territory - the missing 2 crashed in germany, one close to my hometown, the other one 20km away near the "Walchen-See (lake), famous for the hidden "Nazi-Gold".

(The B24 crashed at the mountain "Hohe Munde" is the best-known here, as the austrian mountain-rescue-service managed to rescue one survivor after one week).

[Gran Sasso]

Another memorial in the next village. Here the first bomber named on the plate crashed, the only bomber without any survivors ("our" crash-site marked):

[billmunny]

great pics

Thanks

[behblc]

I just love threads like this - really excellent photos - fantastic countryside -where are the crew buried ?
Do you know if it was long after the crash that the crew were recovered ?

There were quite a few crashes local to me mostly flyingboats but today very little remains of them .

Thanks again for some great photos.

[Adrian]

Thanks for posting Patrick,
A great story set in the most stunning scenery. Fantastic.