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388th Bomb Group |  |
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| Crashes |
The 388th lost airplanes in a number of ways.There were of course combat losses when planes were shot down over enemy territory and the men parachuted out if they could. There is also the Poltova incident where a number of 388th aircraft were bombed on the ground in Russia. Other types of crashes included mid air collisions over both enemy territory and England. There were crashes on takeoff and there were craashes before and after the war. This section documents all of these losses. During World War II, whenever crewmen went missing, a Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) was generated. The general case for a MACR was an aircraft shot down over enemy territory with the crewmen not returning. However in cases where an aircraft crashed in England and the crew bailed and returned to base, no MACR was genereated (there were no missing crew). Another unusual scenario is the case where a plane is damaged over enemy territory, some of the crew bail out but the pilot returns the crippled plane to base. In those cases the aircraft survives but a MACR is generated because some of the crew are missing. The MACR contains general information about the mishap, the personnel and eye witness accounts. It represented the best understanding of the situation at the time. The 388th had a total of about 145 MACRs generated. |
| Crash Data |
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Crash Index provides a list of the 235 crashes of the 388th. Most of these crashes have MACRs associated with them. More details for each crash are available by clicking on the link. |
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Crash Summary provides summary data for the 235 crashes of the 388th. The summary data includes data, crash location, associated mission, crew, aircraft etc. More details for each crash are available by clicking on the link. |
| Notable Crashes |
| Each crash was involved great bravery and sacrifice on the part of the crews. However some of the incidents are more remarkable than others |
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The Piggy Back : Perhaps one of the most unusual crashes of the war could be what happend to Lt. Gsssssss plane. ......... |
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Mid Air : There were many ways that the enemy could bring down an aircraft. Crashes were also the result of accidents between friendlies ...... |
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Returned: This is the unusual case of a MACR being created even though the aircraft returned to base. ...... |