June 6

This was a memorable day.  I'm on the Board of the 100th Bomb Group Foundation, a historical organization of the WWII bomb group, 8th Air Force, which flew B-17s over Germany from Thorpe Abbotts in East Anglia, England.  My father was a navigator in the group, hence my interest and association with the organization.  There is a museum in Kovárská, a village 2 hours from Prague, Czech Republic, which commerates a 3 day air battle over the Ore Mountains on Sept 11, 1944 in which the 100th lost a large number of aircraft.  We were picked up at our hotel by Michal Holy, a volunteer at the museum and driven to Kovárská.  On the way we stopped to see the ruins of a 15th century monastery and then had lunch in Kovárská.  Jan Zdiarsky, one of the founders of the museum and a friend of mine for many years met us there and we toured the museum.  This museum is different from the others covering the 1ooth BG (also known as the Bloody Hundredth - see www.100thbg.com for more info) in that is focuses on a single battle area, has artifacts from the Luftwaffe fighters in the battle and focuses a lot on the planes and crews shot down.  It's a small but well organized museum and very informative.  After spending time at the museum we were driven into the countryside, down wheel track paths in the fields and into the forest to visit a the crash site of a B-17 named Leading Lady from the 350th SQ of the 100th BG.  Even though it was raining as we trekked through the forest it was a special privilege to be able to see such a remote historical location.  There are no markers or signs; it's just a location known to local historians.  We got back to the hotel after 7:00pm and had dinner in another local restaurant and, again, the Czech food was delicious.