Novo Mesto - A memorial plaque was unveiled on Saturday near Novo Mesto, south-east, commemorating the efforts of locals to help the 10-member US crew of a B-24 Liberator bomber that was shot down over the village of Štravberk on 19 March 1944.

Defence Minister Marjan Šarec stressed a lot of blood had been shed for Slovenians to live in an independent state, including in WWII and the 1991 war for independence.

Turning to WWII, he highlighted the role of the Slovenian Partisans as the winners of WWII, saying our history would have been different without them.

"We would have probably been liberated by the Soviet Union and we could have well shared the fate of East European nations," he said in his address, as quoted by the Defence Ministry.

Šarec said Slovenians have always been on the right side of history, and today we are also working with others for peace and better life for our children.

"No one has the right to take up arms against another nation telling them how to live," he said, highlighting the situation in Ukraine, adding that Russia does not recognise the statehood of those countries that were once part of other countries.

The B-24 Liberator crew had to shoot out near Novo Mesto as the plane was returning back to its base in Italy's Foggia from a mission to bomb a Nazi target in Austria.

Only seven members survived, as three were killed when the plane was hit by the Germans over Graz, Austria, and again severely near Novo Mesto.

Five were captured by the Domobranci militia and handed over to the Nazis, and two were helped by the locals to get in touch with the Partisans after one of them asked a local "Tito, Partisans" and local Jože Dragan took them there, which he later paid with his life.

The pair were taken to the liberated area in Bela Krajina region and then to an airfield in Bosnia-Herzegovina, from where the allies flew them back to Italy in May.

The plane, nicknamed Moo Juice, took off from Foggia to bomb the Steyr-Daimler Puch factory in Austria, but then due to bad weather, bombed Klagenfurt and Graz.

The three deceased aviators were buried at the cemetery at the village of Št. Peter, now Otočec, and the US government transferred their remains to the US in 1946.

Today's commemoration was also attended by defence attache at the US Embassy in Ljubljana Lt-Col Ben Shaha, Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni and rescued pilot Ernie Nordwell's son. The defence attache thanked for the solidarity during WWII and for keeping alive the memory of the past events.