A new, comprehensive database lists the Allied aircraft shot down or crashed over what is now Austria during the Second World War.
The project by historian Dr. Nicole-Melanie Goll is being realized by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Future Fund of the Republic with the collaboration of Peter Andorfer, Martin Kirnbauer and Georg Hoffmann. Now, for the first time, the fates of most of the 427 Allied aircraft and more than 8,000 US and British crew members who were shot down or crashed over the former Ostmark have been reconstructed as far as possible, traced and graphically visualized on a map of Austria.
Ms. Goll has combed through US archives, court records, eyewitness reports, local chronicles and more and is now bringing all the cases together on one platform. The preliminary results: of the approximately 8,000 crew members, more than 5,500 made it to the ground alive. Of these, 480 fell victim to a crime – 136 were murdered and 224 people are still missing today. So far, 3,615 are listed by name in the interactive database, which allows various selections to be made. A little “playing” with it reveals that only 22 British RAF aircraft were among them. Or that of the two main types of US bombers used, 24 Boeing B-17Fs and 71 B-17Gs (with chin turrets), or 14 B-24Ds and 62 B-24Js came down over our territory. But also 23 P-38 ‘Lightning’, 29 P-51 ‘Mustang’ or a photo Spitfire XIX. Or one looks for the causes of loss, which can also be narrowed down for the individual aircraft types. Here, 144 aircraft were shot down by FlaK or 179 by German day fighters and 19 by night fighters. But weather reasons and collisions are also recorded. We think: Hats off for this immense amount of work and for the fact that someone is interested in it at all and that funding has been found for it. Many thanks to everyone involved and congratulations on the successful implementation!
Click here to the database.
