battledamage

Interesting history to this aircraft as per Joe Baughers website. 44-63869 P-51D 355th FG, 358th FS, 8th AF; code YF-U. "Elionne / Passions Playground" (165th FS, Kentucky ANG) crashed near Franklin, KY Jan 7, 1948 during attempted intercept of UFO. Pilot Capt Thomas Mantell killed. This incident is legendary in the folklore of UFOs and flying saucers. The usual explanation was that Capt Mantell was trying to reach a Skyhook balloon (which was highly secret at the time) and lost consciousness due to a failure of his oxygen system and crashed.

The library and much of the city of Louvain was set on fire by the occupying Germans in a five-day fit of paranoia between 25 and 30 August 1914, following a failed counterattack by Belgian forces from Antwerp. The library was only rebuilt in 1921, so that should narrow it down a bit. As these things go, yesterday I found this photo, dated 22 Sept 1914, for sale online: Link (won't be there much longer).

Thanks for sharing this photo, I appreciate being able to get a sense of history. Just wanted to let you know I used it on my blog here: hiringlibrarians.com/2012/05/16/answer-in-a-pithy-manner/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_libraries_in_Leuven#The_Li...

Hiring Librarians That's perfectly OK!

Viejito Thanks for that. It's also a relief to find out that most of the good stuff survived the fire because it had been looted by Napoleon in 1797 and returned, presumably per the Congress of Vienna of 1815, to other institutions in Belgium.

Martin B-26B Marauder, USAAF Ser. No. 41-17747, this photo would seem to depict, as per Joe Baugher's site, "hit by AA and belly landed at Telergma Mar 23, 1943." www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1941_3.html