USA airplane crashed during Salernos battle.

[Matteo La Boccia]

USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

These are pieces of a USA airplane crashed on a hill near Salerno during battle of Operation Avalanche 9-21 september 1943. Someone can help us to identify airplane? Thanks.

There are also some 12,7 bullets with printing: M 42, L 42, DM 42, KS 42.

20 cm

diameter 20 cm

15 cm.

diameter 4 cm

diameter 11 cm

Printing 3-12107

Printing S5?T BOEING 41-990?-1 ALCOA .

2 of my friends

 

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[DCMatt]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

From www.nasm.si.edu . Part 33D5233 is a Link Assembly-Bomb Shackle specified by the USAAF on 04/26/33.
So we are likely looking at a bomber.

Chip V.

Nice work Chip!

For what it is worth, here is a picture from Life magazine in 1943. It shows a bomb being loaded into a B-17. I have indicated the shackle. It does not look like the wahtsit part.

DCMatt

 

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[chipveres]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

In my opinion, it was a B-17. Here is my reasoning: We have the bomb shackle Matteo recovered, so we know it was a bomber. The parts are clearly marked Boeing, so that cuts it down to the A-20 or B-17. But we also have the .50 caliber (=12.7 mm) gun shells. According to Wikipedia, the guns of an A-20 were .303 caliber. So that leaves the B-17. The way to double-check is that scattered around somewhere would be four, not two, engines.

Chip V.

Remember than opinions are like elbows. Almost everybody has a couple.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

“WITTEK MFG CO CHICAGO USA PAT 2278337 FB-6”

The Wittek part is a clamp.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=q09dAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=patent:2278337#PPA1,M1

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

“ALUM BOND PAT PEND. PAT NO 2.215 283 ADEL 26”

I think this is called an Adel Clamp. Adel Precision Products Corporation. Line supporting clip. Inventor: Adler http://www.google.com/patents?id=oQBSAAAAEBAJ&dq=patent:+2215283 http://www.google.com/patents?id=oQBSAAAAEBAJ&dq=patent:+2215283


http://www.chiefaircraft.com/airsec/Aircraft/InstallationSupply/AdelClamps.html

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

"Lift The Dot" was a trademark of Carr Fastner of Boston, Mass. It is a web gear fastener snap. http://www.odcmp.org/new_forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=42023
http://www.odcmp.org/new_forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=42859
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t30633.html

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

From www.nasm.si.edu . Part 33D5233 is a Link Assembly-Bomb Shackle specified by the USAAF on 04/26/33.
So we are likely looking at a bomber.

Chip V.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/arch/findaids/waco/waco_sec_48.html

 

[Matteo La Boccia]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

Many thanks for all your precious informations! Someone know if is possible to identify the bombers of USAAF crashed near Salerno (3-5 km sout\east of town) during 1943 in 9 - 21 september? Perhaps we can find the exact airplane and find someone of crew that escape with parachute. Again thanks.

 

[MilitariaCollector]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

This website lists US Army Air Force Missing Aircrew Reports for September 1943 (http://www.accident-report.com/MACR/m194309.html). You can use this to try to narrow down the type of aircraft that you may have found by the date and location of the missing aircraft. I briefly researched Operation Avalanche, and did not really find any information on air support. It seems the ground battles lasted from September 9th - 21st, but if there were air support missions, they probably would of been flying prior to the land invasion. It is also possible that this aircraft crashed at another time unrelated to Operation Avalanche.

 

[MilitariaCollector]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

In the 8th picture in the top set of photos is a radial engine valve cover. The cover is black, and oval shaped with 4 bolt holes. The valve covers were pretty distinctive for each type of engine. The B-17 was powered by the Wright R-1820 engine. This website shows a picture of a Wright R-1820 engine with the parts labeled so you can see what a valve cover looks like (http://www.bush-planes.com/images/WrightR1820Cyclone.jpg). It is hard to see the how many bolts and where they are located on the valve cover in this picture. This website shows a better picture of the valve cover, but there are 6 mounting bolts on this one, yours only has 4 and looks different anyway (http://www.thomasvilleaviationmuseum.org/wright_at20.jpg). This last website sells aviation antiques (http://www.aviation-antiques.com/1941-military-3.html). There is a valve cover that looks similar to yours listed for sale. It says it came from a Wright R-2600 engine, which was used on the B-25. I am not sure if it came off of a R-2600 or not. If yours is a B-25 valve cover, I cant explain the 2 parts that say Boeing on them. Anyway, I believe your valve cover came off of some kind of Wright Radial Engine for a bomber. If you can pinpoint which engine by finding clear photos of the valve covers for each engine, or by finding somebody who knows for sure which engine your valve cover came off of, you can pinpoint the type of engine, and then the type of aircraft.

 

[chipveres]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

I stand corrected that later A-20's did indeed mount 12.7 mm guns, as well as the Wright R-2600 engine. So the A-20 remains a possibility, although few of these were made by Boeing. I wish I knew how many engines the darn aircraft had.

Chip V.

 

[chipveres]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

According to www.realgaskets.com , some versions of the R-1820 actually share the same valve cover gasket as the R-2600. It all comes down to which particular version you have. Also see their site for a very good closeup of the shape.

Chip V.

 

[Matteo La Boccia]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

We return on crash site and find about 20 kg of airplane fragment. We also find this label. Some idea? Thanks again to all people are giving us a help. -

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

We return on crash site and find about 20 kg of airplane fragment. We also find this label. Some idea? Thanks again to all people are giving us a help. -

I cant read what it says. Looks like SHIELDED IGNITION MANIFOLD

something about STUD_________-(maybe STUDEBAKER CORP. )

on the bottom NEWARK is a city looks like TITEFLEX METAL HOSE CO.

My guess is some kind of shielded ignition system to prevent radio interference. I cant read it but right above the word titeflex is MFD which would be date of manufacture. Hope this helps.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

Check this out!! A wrecked aircraft was found by some fisherman with a similar nameplate. It appears to say SHIELDED IGNITION MANIFOLD.
TITEFLEX METAL HOSE CO. http://translate.google.com/transla...ed+ignition%22&hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLR_enUS242US243

It was found a copper plate which was engraved:
"Shelded Ignition Manifold Made In USA. Assy No D-31091 Order No N 113. Spec No AN-1-27 Clas 03 H Tipe R-1810. MFD 9-15-52 by New R Tite Flex Inc." "Shelded Ignition Manifold Made In USA. Assy No. D-31091 Order No. N 113. Spec No. AN-1-27 Clas Tipe R 03 H-1810. MFD 9-15-52 by New R Tite Flex Inc..

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

This is probably it. http://www.google.com/patents?id=Hv...939&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#PPA1,M1

 

[wryhawk]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

The Studebaker Corporation in South Bend, Indiana, made many of the Wright Cyclone engines used in the B-17. An old buddy of mine who was a mechanic in the 8th air force, 401st bomb group, said they would go to the docks in England and pick out the Studebaker built engines as they were unloaded, " Because they always ran the best".

 

[chipveres]

Re: USA airplane crashed during Salerno's battle.

Gentlemen:

I think we have established a high probability that the airplane was a B-17. To go further than that, we will need the tail number, or the aircraft nameplate, or at least an engine nameplate.

This may be expecting the impossible of the field researchers, but we can hope for the best.

To name the particular aircraft from written records looks unlikely. The Twelfth Air Force lost 1081 planes that year, a substantial portion of them B-17's.

Good luck and good hunting!

Chip V.