UNARMED AMERICAN C-47 SHOT DOWN
(Extracted from the Chicago Tribune Press Service by Jack Edmonds)
TURK SERIOUSLY WOUNDED
On August 9, 1946, three Yugoslav fighter planes fired on the American C-47 plane that was brought down outside Ljubljana. A Turkish officer was seriously wounded.
The plane was then approached by three fighters. The fighters made no signal which could be intercepted as a landing signal. They did wobble their wings to attract attention, which according to the United States practice, is the accepted practice to attract attention to the plane making the signal. The Yugoslav fighters then attacked without any warning whatsoever. The transport plane then descended rapidly in an effort to land but was fired on during the decent.
The pilot of the plane was specifically instructed to over Klangenfurt to Udine via Tarvisio, carefully avoiding Yugoslav territory. The weather information available was inaccurate and he encountered heavy clouds, icing, and high winds on his route. When he emerged into clear weather, he believed his plane was northwest of Udine in Italy. Actually while under instrument flight conditions, he had drifted off his course into Yugoslavia.
Ambassador Richard C. Patterson Jr., who has lust returned to his post, said: "I consider, this a wicked, inexcusable and deliberate ,attack on a friendly nation's plane, which was lost in a storm, and only by the grace of God and the expertness of the pilot they were not all killed.” The Yugoslav planes flew around the American transport plane and forced it down with tracer bullets and continued to fire after the plane had made a crash landing, it was charged.
No Signals From Yugoslavs
According to Col. Chester M. Stratton, American Assistant Military Attaché, and Theodore Hohenthal, Vice Consul at Zagreb, who visited the interned crew and passengers at Ljubljana, where they were are kept in a hotel that is used as headquarters of the Yugoslav Fourth Army, said neither the pilot nor the crew saw any signals when the C-47 came out of the clouds on a Vienna (Tulln Air Base) to Rome flight to get a bearing. Their first realization that they were not over Udine, toward which they were flying, was the sight of the Yugoslav planes.
According to the pilot, Capt. William Crombie of East Longmeadow, MA, the Yugoslavs gave no signals although the first plane flew close enough for signals by hand. After the first close sweep by the Yugoslav plane, bullets hit the American transport. Captain Crombie immediately leveled off and gave orders for a crash landing with the wheels up. In the crash the propellers flew off.
First Lt. William L. McNew, of Atlanta, GA, the co-pilot, gave first aid to the wounded Turkish officer. Then Yugoslav Army officers arrived and took them all to Ljubljana.
The Americans were unable to take their baggage and the plane’s log book. The American crew and the passengers asked permission to see their own authorities but this was refused, which the Embassy asserted was a violation of International law.
Information Long Delayed
Col. Richard Partridge, United States Military Attaché, went to the Yugoslav General Staff four times but received no information. Col. Stratton was informed that the case was in the hands of the Yugoslav Government, so the army was unwilling to give permission for American officials to view the plane without permission.
American officials were also barred at first from seeing the wounded Turk and the two Hungarians who had been passengers.
The detained Americans, in addition to the pilot and co-pilot are: Cpl. Ambert l. Dahigren, Cicero, IL, engineer; T/Sgt. Joseph F. Hochecker, Chicago, IL; First Lt. Donald E. Carroll, Elgin, NB; and Richard M. Blackburn, UNRRA official, Clayton, OH.
The Embassy emphasized further that the Americans were in “fine condition and well treated, living in separate rooms and getting good food.” American officials who interviewed them said the Yugoslav officers were worried.
Questioning by Yugoslavs
During this period the passengers and crew were questioned frequently and the Yugoslav questioners attempted to persuade individuals to delete from their statements any reference to the bad weather they had encountered and were asked to include statements as to the satisfactory care afforded them.
Released
The plane the passengers and crew were held from August 9th until their release on August 22nd by the Yugoslav authorities, with the acceptation of the wounded Turkish officer. The Yugoslav Government advised the Turkish authorities that the Turkish officer is free to leave Yugoslavia when he his able to travel. They expressed their regrets concerning his injury.