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Hi Pockets
42-95385
721st Squadron
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My father used to tell us children the following drama he had observed on 13th of June 1944 in Surberg (Surmountain).
It was early in the morning when he heard a loud noise in the sky and so he left the house to see what was.
From direction of Munich/Rosenheim an aircraft was approaching. It flew back into the direction of the mountain range and then in big circles towards Teisendorf, Neukirchen and Freilassing before finally coming back towards him.
The aircraft was continuously loosing height. Witnesses said the aircraft was beeing fired at by a quadruplet flak, which was ready to fire at aircraft flying above Traunstein.
My father watched three people getting out of the plane above Wüstenreit (later it turned out that they had been detained there after the crash by a farmer).
The aircraft was flying just above the house so that it was possible for my father to recognize black brandmarks on the cowling which he assumed meant that the engines on both sides had been on fire.
Then the aircraft was flying towards a clearing. It touched a big tree before coming down in the woods and burstimg into flames.
My father couldn´t let go of the story all his lifetime and so I decided in spring 2011 to research into the matter.
Because of witness reports the site of the crash could be approximately narrowed down and finally located. In countless search operations a metal detector has helped me to find several parts with original numbers.
After time consuming and complex research the parts have been identified as those of the B24 Liberator Hi Pockets.
Wolfgang Fleidl
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Photographs courtesy of Wolfgang Fleidl ( son of eyewitness) and Martina Diehl
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