I have read nowhere near enough about the famous USAAF low-level raid on the Ploesti oil fields. I've read about RAF etc ops numerous times in books by/about Commonwealth aircrew/ops and always find myself thinking back to what little I know of the American operation. Air Force honors pilot for World War II exploit | ShreveportTimes | The Times
Heres some references Andy ... maybe you can research the ones that have the most interest for you !! USAAF Chronology • Ploesti References SUNDAY, 1 AUGUST 1943 EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN (Ninth Air Force): In Rumania, 177 B-24's, of the IX Bomber Command (including B-24's on loan from the Eighth Air Force) are dispatched to bomb oil refineries at Ploesti and nearby Campina. The operation (TIDALWAVE) is costly, 54 planes and 532 airmen are lost, but damage to the targets is severe. 5 Medal of Honors are awarded for this mission. In Sicily, 230+ P-40's, the largest Ninth Air Force total to date, attack Adrano, the area near Randazzo, Messina, Milazzo, Taormina, and shipping in the Straits of Messina. Annie
Hi Andy, There was a good article on this in "Flight Journal" (Mar/Apr 2004). Ploesti B-24, Utah Man The last Liberator to return from a jinxed mission Ron Dick The refineries at Ploesti, Romania were a choice target so the Reich ringed them with one of the heaviest anti-aircraft defense systems of the war. The first B-24 raid to penetrate that system was dogged by navigation errors that put Lt. Walter Stewart and his crew in Utah Man leading his group over the correct target nearly by themselves. Author Ron Dick analyses the mistakes and explores the consequences through the personal comments of Stewart and his crew. I'll see if I still have it, but I've recently donated about 6 crates of books and magazines and I suspect it was amongst them. Cheers Owen
Tidal Wave is the most noted of the USAAF ops against Polesti - but the first was in early June, 1942 (in fact the first USAAF offinsive op in the ETO) by a dozen or so B-24's initally tasked to bomb Japam from bases in China (planning for this operations started prior to Pear Harbor, i.e. befor the US was at war with Japan. Col. (Later General) Halverson led this mission,at that time the longest bombing mission flown, which did little damage but put the Germans and Romanians on notice that they were not out of reach.
614 Squadron used to do pathfinder ops for the USAAF over to Ploesti this was before Tidal wave. 614 was the only pathfinder squadron in the whole of the MTO. I've never heard of the raid led by Halverson, I always thought the RAF got to Ploesti first
I think that's where I remembered the RAF contribution from most recently, Gaz - 614 Sqn via our friend Tom Scotland's book.
Yeah Tom keeps popping up everywhere I used to get him copies of 614 Squadron Operations Records when the site was in full swing. I used to have volunteers go to Kew to get copies made, others would then help transcibe them. I still have a truck load of ORBs that will get added to the site over time, which reminds me. Andy contact me through my site and I'll give you access to the ORBs for John Bailey Oh and then you'll owe me your soul muahahah
No worries, thanks Gaz. You might have to ask Kyt for my soul. I think I traded it for a book which I have no doubt not read yet... Most exciting re John. Did you ever supply him with this info? Crap, think I've hijacked a thread again.
Luckily (or some would say I was a bit sad) I've kept every email I've sent or recieved in the last 9 years so I've got all of the correspondances with John and his daughter Peggy. There seems to be mention of him serving with 34 Squadron SAAF as well as 178 Squadron but can't remember without going through things a bit more. I did play a part in getting John reunited with James Pointing shortly before he died, but that's another story. That reminds me I need to track down Adam Pointing again
Hi Mike and welcome ! Enjoy your time here ! Is this the one you're talking about ?? is this something you've been researching ? Annie
Andy wrote "I have read nowhere near enough about the famous USAAF low-level raid on the Ploesti oil fields. I've read about RAF etc ops numerous times in books by/about Commonwealth aircrew/ops and always find myself thinking back to what little I know of the American operation." One of my books is "Ploesti" by Dugan & Stewart. I throughly recommend this book which is easily found. AbeBooks: Search Results - Dugan & Stewart and ploesti BookFinder.com: Search Results (Matching Titles)
