AI R
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FOUNDATION, INC.
Summer 2013
Vol. 37 No.2
The Magazine of the Air Force Museum Foundation • www.airforcemuseum.com
TO HELL AND BACK - Operation Tidal Wave -
In the next issue of the Friends Journal… …ride along on the Ploesti Raid of August 1943
Flying at low-level over the Astra Romana oil refinery at Ploesti during Operation Tidal Wave, on Sunday 1 August 1943, Lt James Merrick powers his B-24 Liberator Lil De-icer through walls of burning debris as time-delayed bombs, dropped in error by an earlier attack, begin to explode beneath him and the others of the 98th Bomb Group. With the element of surprise lost, and taking heavy losses in the process, the 98th bravely continue to hold their course as the roaring tongues of flame and dense smoke erupt around them. The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc. is a Section 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization. It is not part of the Department of Defense or any of its components, and it has no government status.
THE AIR FORCE MUSEUM FOUNDATION, INC. BOARD OF MANAGERS Lt Gen (Ret.) Richard V. Reynolds - Chairman Mr. Gregory G. Lockhart - President Mr. Gary G. Stephenson - Vice President Maj Gen (Ret.) Charles S. Cooper III - Secretary Mr. Robert J. Suttman II, CFA - Treasurer Gen (Ret.) William J. Begert The Hon. Claude M. Bolton, Jr. Col (Ret.) Mark N. Brown Dr. Thomas J. Burns, PhD. Lt Gen (Ret.) Charles H. Coolidge, Jr. Ms. Frances A. Duntz Mr. David C. Evans Lt Gen (Ret.) Lawrence P. Farrell, Jr. Mr. Charles J. Faruki Col (Ret.) Michael B. Goetz Maj Gen (Ret.) E. Ann Harrell Col (Ret.) William S. Harrell Mr. Jon G. Hazelton Mr. Charles F. Kettering III Mr. Patrick L. McGohan Col (Ret.) Pamela A. Melroy Gen (Ret.) T. Michael Moseley Col (Ret.) Susan E. Richardson Gen (Ret.) Charles T. Robertson, Jr. Col (Ret.) James B. Schepley Mr. Scott J. Seymour Mr. Philip L. Soucy Mr. Harry W. (Wes) Stowers, Jr.
Col “Scoop” Cooper, USAF (Ret.) Executive Director, Air Force Museum Foundation
There are times when things don’t go as planned. In fact, our vocabulary as fellow aviators is full of the concept of a Mother Nature that wants to capriciously upset our “best laid plans” and devices. Our schemes often go to “Hell in a hand basket.” The best strategies succumb to the law of unintended consequences. Mechanical failures or errors in judgment are caused by generic gremlins or Fifinella. And, of course, Murphy’s Law affects everything we plan. So perhaps it’s no surprise that credit for naming the ubiquitous “if a thing can go wrong, it will,” law of nature is given, in one popular account, to an event that occurred in 1949 at Edwards Air Force Base, California and which was first publicly recounted by USAF Col John Paul Stapp. He wrote in a letter: “The law’s namesake was Capt Ed Murphy, a development engineer from Wright Field Aircraft Lab. Frustration with a strap transducer which was malfunctioning due to an error in wiring the strain gage bridges caused him to remark ‘If there is any way to do it wrong, he will,’ referring to the technician who had wired the bridges at the Lab. I assigned Murphy’s law to the statement and the associated variations.”
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE
In the pages of this issue, you will read stories from WWII, Southeast Asia, the Cold War, and Afghanistan that reflect Murphy’s Law in action. You might say that this law is the only operational one you can count on. No further evidence of this is needed than that we had more articles reflecting this theme than space. For BONE aficionados, expect to read a firsthand account of a B-1 mishap at Edwards AFB in our winter issue.
Lt Gen (Ret.) J. H. Hudson, Director Terrill Aitken, Senior Curator
FOUNDATION
Executive Director - Col (Ret.) “Scoop” Cooper Chief Development Officer - Col Mona Vollmer Membership Manager - Matt Lynch Development Coordinator - Pam Kluesner Membership Coordinator - Michele Giefer Membership Office: 1-877-258-3910 (toll free) or 937-656-9615
Here’s something you won’t find anything wrong with: the Fourth Building Campaign at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. We are on our final approach in this important fundraising effort. Every dollar you send will contribute to permanently moving the Presidential Aircraft and the R&D aircraft (including the XB-70 Valkyrie) to the main campus of the Museum so that all of our 1.2 million guests will have the opportunity to experience this part of our nation’s and Air Force history.
Friends Journal
Editor - Peggy Coale Art Director - Mark A. Riley Editorial Assistants - Bill Hughes, Joe King, Robert Pinizzotto Editorial Office: 937-656-9622
To all our Friends—stay well and remember to keep the pointy end going forward! Check Six!
Scoop
od o G e B y d a L At 2:50 p.m. on April 4, 1943, 25 B-24Ds of the 376th Bomb Group took off from their AAF base at Soluch, Libya, for a high-altitude bombing attack against harbor facilities at Naples, Italy. The crew of nine— four lieutenants and five sergeants—were on their first combat mission. All planes but one returned safely to Allied territory that night; the one missing was the Lady Be Good. Almost 16 years later on Nov. 9, 1958, several British geologists were flying over the desolate, sun-baked Libyan Desert. At approximately 400 miles south of Soluch, they spotted an aircraft on the sand. A ground party that reached the site in March 1959 discovered the plane to be a B-24D. The Lady Be Good had been found. Although the aircraft’s hardware was surprisingly well preserved—the plane’s 50 caliber machine guns still operated at the pull of the trigger, the radio was in working condition, one of the engines was still functional, and there were still containers filled with water on board—the remains of the crew were nowhere to be seen. Evidence at the site indicated that the crew had become lost in the dark on return from Naples and had flown over their base and southward into the desert. As their fuel supply became depleted, the nine men aboard had bailed out but had disappeared while attempting to
walk northward to civilization. Intensive searches were made for clues as to the fate of the crew, and in 1960 the remains of eight were found, one near the plane and the other seven far to the north. Five had trekked 78 miles across the tortuous sand before perishing and one had gone an amazing 109 miles. In addition, they had lived eight days rather than only two expected of men in this area with little or no water. The body of the ninth man was never found. A diary found in the copilot’s pocket describes with heartbreaking simplicity the brutal conditions endured in their final eight days. Numerous parts from the Lady Be Good were returned to the U.S. for technical study. Also, some parts were installed in other aircraft, which then experienced unexpected difficulties. A C-54 in which several autosyn transmitters were installed had propeller trouble and made a safe landing only by throwing cargo overboard. A C-47 in which a radio receiver was installed ditched in the Mediterranean, and a U.S. Army “Otter” airplane in which a Lady Be Good seat armrest was installed, crashed in the Gulf of Sidra with 10 men aboard. No trace was found of any of them; one of the few pieces washed ashore was the armrest of the Lady Be Good.
Cover Photo: TO HELL AND BACK by Anthony
Saunders© The Military Gallery, Ojai, CA. This image is available as a Limited Edition print, personally signed by veterans of the Ploesti Raid, from Aces High Aviation Gallery. www.aces-high.com The Friends Journal is published quarterly by the Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the expansion and improvement of the National Museum of the United States Air Force and to the preservation of the history of the United States Air Force. Authors retain all rights to further publication or use. Author’s views expressed in the Friends Journal do not necessarily represent those of the Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc. or those of the United States Air Force. Printed in the USA. USPS Standard ”A” rate postage paid at Dayton, OH. Subscription to the Friends Journal is included in the annual membership of the Friends of the Air Force Museum. All materials are Copyright 2013 and may not be reproduced without permission from the Air Force Museum Foundation. Submission of material for publication and correspondence concerning contents should be addressed to The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc., P.O. Box 1903, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-1903, and marked in the corner of the envelope “ATTN: Editor.”
One of the four propellers and an engine from the Lady Be Good are on display in the World War II Gallery at the Museum. The propeller was transferred from the 40th Troop Carrier Squadron.
Contents ARTICLES 4 Tidal Wave Recollections by James McClain 9 Operation Red Sand: Embedded with ground troops in Afghanistan by MSgt Kevin Wallace, USAF
13 “A Story That Needs To Be Told” by John C. Broussard
16 A Fighter Pilot in SAC by Maj. Gordon “Scotty” Daniel, USAFR (Ret) 19 The Hard Hat: Avionics Specialist on the B-52 by Dr. Doug Rokke, MAJ (Ret), USAR 22 MISSION TO NATO By Robert J. Huston
25 Compliment From A Boyhood Hero by William W. Wyper
27
Consolidated B-24D Liberator “Jerk’s Natural”
30 Classic Aircraft Of The National Museum Of The U.S. Air Force® 31 Our Sixteenth and Final Combat Mission by Flight Officer William H. Keiter
as told to his cousin, Donald J. Mench
37 Performance of Duty Under Conditions Simulating War or Was God My Co-pilot? Maj Robert T. Smith, USAF (Ret) 39 FOUR-AND-A-HALF MISSIONS byRalph David Westfall
DEPARTMENTS 2 Editor’s Notes and Feedback
42
Restoration Update
44 New Exhibits Original part from B-17 Memphis Belle® returns home.
50
Reunion Notices
53
The Museum Store Spring 2013 • Friends Journal
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EDITOR’s XXXXXXXXXXX
NOTES
A
re you old enough to remember where you were on the morning of August 1, 1943? Jim McClain was stationed in the African desert, in Libya. Only 20 years old at the time, he was already designated a lead navigator on a B-24 crew. Early that “clear and bright Sunday morning,” he set out with his crew on one of the most ambitious air missions of World War II: a low-level bombing of the oil refineries around Ploesti, Romania. His fate would be determined by a coin flip. He remembers that it was “a morning that one would rather go to church and then leaf through the Sunday papers than be winging his way into the heart of Hitler’s ‘Fortress Europe.’” Three years later, part of the wave of war veterans returning to the states and to college, he wrote an essay about this memorable combat mission for a college English class assignment. He remarked that he got chills when contemplating the significance of that coin flip. In this issue we feature stories of service and missions where things did not go as planned. Was it luck or was it fate? For the “Operation Tidal Wave” B-24 crew, the flip of a coin determined who flew the left wing position that hit heavy flak and ended their mission in Romania. Another B-24 crew, whose story is recounted in “Sixteenth and Final Mission,” were also hit by flak but were able to divert to Sweden where they served out the rest of their time in relative comfort. In “4 ½ Missions,” you’ll read about a B-29 crew in 1944 forced to eject over Japanese-held territory after their plane was mortally damaged by one of their own squadron’s bombs. Sometimes our plans for ourselves take a detour. In “A Fighter Pilot in SAC,” an F-86 pilot who was sent to SAC to fly B-47s, when his name was drawn out of a hat of “volunteers,” strives to manage his disappointment on the unexpected change of plans. In “Mission to NATO,” an Air Force ROTC student who enlists in 1950 to aid the war effort in Korea is surprised to find out that the Air Force most desired his ability to type. In “A Story that Needs to be Told,” an African-American Airman who enlisted in 1947, writes about the pitfalls he encountered on the road to fulfilling his dream of becoming a control tower operator. In “Compliment from a Boyhood Hero,” and “Was God my Copilot?” you’ll read about a P-51 pilot and an F-102 pilot who unexpectedly encountered engine trouble during test and training flights; one survived by skill, the other through luck, or perhaps, divine intervention. “The Hard Hat: Avionics Specialist on the B-52” story tells about a unique group of enlisted technicians whose problem-solving skills were called upon whenever things weren’t going according to plan on the B-52s flying during the Southeast Asian war. The story “Operation Red Sand,” illustrates another diverse mission for U.S. Airmen on behalf of the nation. An Air Force combat photojournalist, embedded with ground forces in Afghanistan in 2011, recounts a reconnaissance mission into rural Afghanistan which turns ugly fast and ends in an intense firefight. Author Jim McClain and several of his fellow Ploesti-Raid survivors will be at the Museum this August 1, at a reunion and commemoration of 70 years since that mission on a “clear and bright Sunday morning” in 1943. If your luck allows you to be in Dayton that day, we hope you’ll stop in to greet them.
Peggy Coale, Editor
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Friends Feedback
Museum Memories
Corrections
Reading Kevin Uppstrom’s article,“Director Dad,” in the spring 2013 issue of the Friends Journal, I was reminded of my high school days at Wright-Patterson AFB, 19581962. My family lived in the Brick Quarters, and the Air Force Museum was located on Patterson Field. It was a mile away, an easy bicycle ride. The Museum was housed in a warehouse just inside the WPAFB gate at the end of Main Street, Fairborn, Ohio. The building was small, so exhibits inside were not large, and most aircraft were displayed outside. I recall the strange looking North American F-107, a derivative of the F-100 in which I later flew almost 1000 hours in Vietnam and in England. I am sure Strawberry Bitch was there, as well as the B-36 Peacemaker, the same one in today’s Museum. Air Force brats will always find a way to spend time, one way or another, with their passion—airplanes. Since my father was a pilot in the Air Force, and I grew up in a culture of military airplanes, I frankly just assumed that was where I was headed, so the Museum was an unavoidable attraction. After high school I went on to attend the Air Force Academy and had a 34-year career in the Air Force. I spent many of those years stationed at WPAFB, and visiting the National Museum of the Air Force was something I did often and still do when I am in the Dayton area. My wife, Ann, was a Museum guide for several years. To me, it is the greatest aircraft museum on the planet, and when I am there, I am home.
B-29 Photo Caption In the article by Lt Col McGill [“Milk Run Over North Korea” spring 2013] there is an accompanying photograph captioned “19th Bomb Group B-29s releasing bombs on a North Korean target.” The aircraft shown are not from the 19th Bomb Group. The 19th did not have a letter on the tail but rather a 4-foot horizontal stripe. The reason we did not have a letter, from what I have learned, was because we were not part of SAC at that time but assigned to the 20th Air Force. The story is that Gen MacArthur would not relinquish operational control of the 19th and so SAC took the letter “M” from them. Richard Oakley,Youngstown, Ohio The error was ours and not Lt Col McGill’s. During layout we switched photos but inadvertently kept the wrong caption. We apologize for the confusion.
Book Author In the Museum Store/book section pages of the spring 2013 Friends Journal, the author of “America’s Secret MiG Squadron is Col (Ret) Gaillard R. Peck Jr., not Louis Malucci. We apologize for the error.
Maj Gen Francis C. “Rusty” Gideon, USAF (Ret)
I am writing about the spring 2013 Friends Journal. I’m a proud member, and the Friends Journal is excellent with many fine articles. [Regarding the article] “Director Dad,” I knew Royal Frey; he was very helpful with aircraft information I needed. [Regarding the picture of the Presidential Gallery] on page 43, I worked on Air Force One when it was at Kennedy Airport, and I worked for Lockheed Aircraft. I enjoyed reading these articles. Paul John Simchock, Lynbrook, New York
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Tidal Wave Recollections
Digital illustration by Mark Riley
was a navigator on a combat crew of the 389BG that participated in this undertaking. by James McClain
“WRONG TURN! BOB! WRONG TURN!” It was John Tucholski, radio operator on our crew of the 389th Bomb Group (389BG), imitating my frantic shouts to pilot Bob Wright on the bomb run to destroy the Steaua Romana oil refinery at Campina, Romania on August 1, 1943. Now almost 54 years later, we were checking in for the 389BG 1997 Reunion. The voice was immediately recognizable, and the incident being recalled was unforgettable: Operation Tidal Wave. Tidal Wave was the code name for the joint Eighth Air Force/Ninth Air Force mission to destroy Germany’s main source of fuel for its military forces, the refinery complex in and around Ploesti, Romania. This raid has been described by many writers as the most daring attack of the war by the Army Air Forces. Five Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to participants in the raid, three of them posthumously, making it the most highly decorated military mission in U.S. history. I
The Eighth Air Force, based in England, dispatched its three B-24 BGs—the 98th, 93rd, and 389th—to Bengasi, Libya, on detached service to the Ninth Air Force based in Cairo. The Ninth Air Force put up its two B-24 groups, the 98th and 376th—also based at Bengasi—for Tidal Wave. In total, approximately 180 B-24 Liberator bombers would be available for the operation. The three Eighth AF Bomber Command Groups sent to the Middle East were designated the 201st Provisional Combat Wing, under the command of Col E.J.”Ted” Timberlake, former 93BG Commanding Officer. The 389BG was the neophyte group of the three, having just begun arriving in mid-June 1943 to its new home, RAF Hethel near Norwich in East Anglia. The air crews had flown over with only a skeleton group of ground personnel as the great bulk of the ground staff were still at sea. Although the 389BG had not yet flown a combat mission, it had already suffered its first casualties, the result of a two-bomber collision while practicing lowlevel formation flying. (Rumor was we would be doing dam-busting missions, ala the British RAF.)
McClain
The aircraft author’s crew flew on Operation Tidal Wave was nicknamed Old Blister Butt.
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But then, on July 1, we were on our way to Africa. After an overnight stop at Port Reath in southwest England for refueling, briefing, and equipment checking, we departed the next morning for Africa in formation flights of three B-24s. Our Flight was the same three crews that had flown together since February 1943, during First Phase Combat Training at Davis-Monthan Army Air Base, Tucson, Arizona, so we were comfortable doing this. Low cloud conditions required flying at only 1,000 feet or so—not so comfortable in the event of trouble, such as the anti-aircraft fire bursting around us as we passed through the straits of Gibraltar. We ducked even lower and all three B-24s got through okay. We never did determine the source of the flak, but we’d had our first sip of air warfare.
TIDAL WAVE RECOLLECTIONS
That evening we landed at a French Air Base at Oran, Algeria. The next morning the weather was bright and clear—and hot and turbulent. Fortunately there was no need to maintain formation. The desert terrain en route was littered with remnants of the recent warfare: burned out tanks and trucks, aircraft, and military debris of all sorts, mile after mile. We arrived late afternoon on Saturday, July 3 at Berka 4, the piece of the Sahara desert scraped out for the 389th BG. This was to be our home to for the next two months, not the best time of year to visit Libya. Living conditions were primitive at best—tents, which we had to pitch ourselves; folding canvas cots; and two blankets, one to sleep on, one to sleep under on the usually cool nights. Drinking water was trucked in and dispensed from large hanging canvas “Lister” bags, usually warm, and always bitter from purifying agents. For the first several days, our meals were mainly fresh-baked bread (from one of the Ninth AF groups), canned peaches and peanut butter, from large, unlabeled multi-gallon cans.These were soon supplemented with field rations. Some men bartered with the natives for eggs, exchanging cigarettes, which were never in short supply. Our “bathroom facilities” were open air: steel drums sunk into the ground for seated use, or mounted on eight-foot high wood frames for gravity-fed showers with trucked-in water. Pull the rope to wet yourself, let go and soap yourself, Pull again to rinse off. Use your steel helmet for a basin to shave regularly so your oxygen mask fits snugly. Most days there were sand storms of varying intensity. In their aftermath it was necessary to clean the machine guns, each gunner responsible for his weapon(s). That included bombardier John McSween and myself. Since the nose compartment became a sauna from the sun, we alternated cleaning the nose guns. After a couple weeks we all adapted pretty well. I walked in to Bengasi only once. Having changed hands between Montgomery and Rommel some seven or eight times, it was mostly rubble. Our group flew three combat missions prior to the August 1 Ploesti Raid. The most notable of these for us was the third one, on Monday, July 12 to Reggio d’Calabria. Our target was the railroad yards, ferry slips, and bridges. This escapade is a story of its own. Two of our engines were shot out, a third was damaged by anti-aircraft fire over our target. Bob Wright, using exceptional skill, was able to execute a controlled-crash downhill landing in southeast Sicily—on only one engine—without serious injury to our crew. The invasion of Sicily had just begun, so amid the crack of rifle fire we managed to be “captured” by a Canadian Infantry Unit which had landed the previous day and who now shared their beach bivouac and rations with the ten of us. Next afternoon I found an RAF Spitfire unit’s pasture/airfield. They sent
a radio message to Ninth AF, Cairo, for me. Two days later a reply came: “LEAVE PLANE. PROCEED TO MALTA.” Courtesy of the Royal Navy, we arrived in Malta midday on Saturday, July 17. Through a series of chance events, we found ourselves flying the 98th BG’s Daisy Mae back to their Bengasi base, on Sunday, July 18. From there we were trucked back to Berka 4. Two days later we began training for Operation Tidal Wave, which would be our mission #4.
Berka 4, home base of the 389BG in Libya
We received exceptionally detailed training for the mission in spite of the limited intelligence data available. Because the refineries lay at such great distance from our bases, reconnaissance planes were not able to photograph the target; the only pictures available were from pre-war postcards and travel brochures. Ground training included movies made by the English using models of the refineries, which were quite realistic in depicting bombing from 250 feet. For its time, it was very high-tech. We heard lectures by men who had worked in these Romanian refineries, some of which were English owned and/or operated before the war. We also diligently studied maps of the route to and from the target and photographs of landmarks we would see. The ground portion of the training also included indoctrination on measures to take if shot down. About all I remember is, if downed in Yugoslavia, identify yourself as “Zabit Anglais.” We were issued escape kits, which included a variety of emergency medical items, a map of the Balkans, monies to buy help or goods such as water purifying tablets. Most crewmembers added items of their own that could be useful. One pilot hid a steelcutting blade in a shoe, in case he was imprisoned. I had even packed a cloth bag with toothbrush, soap, razor, and other articles I thought might come in handy should we be forced down in enemy territory. In addition to the ground training, we naturally got considerable air training. Spring 2013 • Friends Journal
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TIDAL WAVE RECOLLECTIONS
The progressive bombing practices concluded with a five-group rehearsal Saturday, July 31. Some 175 Liberator bombers roared across the desert creating their own sand storms.The results were deemed a “spectacular success.” We knew the fateful day was near.
McClain
Photo of Bob Wright’s crew. Author is in front row, far right.
Outlines of each group’s target refinery, including the specific target buildings within the refinery, were created in the desert for the practice bombing training. Norden bombsights were replaced with simple ring and post sights, much like sights on shooting gallery rifles in those years. Because our bombardier, John McSween, was hospitalized with malaria, I did all the bombing on the practice missions, expecting to do it if McSween wasn’t recovered in time to fly the mission. Practice bombing runs started individually, then in elements, on up
Practice for Operation Tidal Wave near Bengasi, Libya, in July 1943
through total groups. At the 389BG rehearsal meeting, Group Commander Col Jack W. Wood gave us our after-bombing exit instructions: “After ‘bombs away’ it’s every man for himself! Hit the deck! Forget formation flying! Get the hell out of there!” Then he added, “And, NO nurse-maiding!” (assisting or protecting a crew in trouble). “I want the most bombers back here as possible. The best way to do that is for every crew to be responsible for themselves” No one in the group knew when the mission was to take place, and tension mounted as we completed our training. For several days prior to the raid, we were briefed every evening on the weather for the following day. We would then go to our beds and try to sleep, expecting to be called in the morning for the actual operation. Practice continued for some days, however, and it was like waiting for the dentist to call you in to have a tooth filled. 6
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Sunday, August 1, 1943, dawned bright and clear, a perfect day for flying, with lighter winds than usual. We were aroused at 2:30 a.m. for breakfast and final briefing. One might have thought we were very calm because we were so quiet. Actually, we were all wondering whether we would be among those who would return, and no one cared to discuss it. This mission would be the longest in distance and time aloft that we would fly in our combat tour. All the bombers were fitted with an auxiliary fuel tank in the left forward bomb bay to enable them to make this unusually long mission. Fuel would be transferred from this bomb bay tank to the engines’ four fuel tanks periodically as needed. Unlike the wing fuel tanks, tanks in the bomb bay were not self-sealing—posing a threat if struck by enemy bullets or anti-aircraft shells. The 389BG was the last group in the five-bomb group “train” en route to the oil refinery complex in and around Ploesti. Our target was the Steaua Romana refinery at Campina, Romania, some 18 miles northwest of Ploesti. It was assigned to the 389BG because it was the most distant target from our Begasi, Libya base, and ours were the newest B-24s, with somewhat longer range than the other four group’s older bombers. Our crew was given the new B-24D Old Blister Butt, which had been brought to the 389BG by a replacement crew, our original (no name) airplane having been left at the bottom of a steep hillside, nose down in a grape vineyard near Pachino, Sicily. Formation assembly went well for the 389th. Our threeplane Element Lead/Pilot was 1st Lt Ed Fowble. Our crew, piloted by Bob Wright, settled into the high-right position off our element leader; Bob’s best friend, 1st Lt Lloyd “Pete” Hughes and crew flew in the left-wing position. Before each mission, Wright and Hughes— fast friends from their months together through all three phases of pilot training—had a ritual coin toss to see which one would fly the favored left-wing position. The winner that morning was Hughes. As we headed north across the glistening blue Mediterranean, we noted a perpendicular grey column of smoke rising from a large, dark, roiling oil patch. It was evident a bomber had gone down. (Later we would learn it was the lead crew of the 376BG, the Mission Lead Group. It fell from the the sky for no apparent reason.) Landfall was made at the very southern boundary of
TIDAL WAVE RECOLLECTIONS
NMUSAF
A B-24 flies through the smoke and fire generated by bombs previously dropped by earlier aircraft.
Albania where we altered course to the northeast, over spectacularly scenic mountain terrain dotted with redroofed houses, towards our Initial Point (IP) for our bomb run, Pitesti, Romania. The trip was going well until we encountered towering cumulus clouds which were causing groups ahead of us to become scattered. The 389th managed to come together quite well once we got over the mountains.The IP was located easily, and we began our curved bomb run to Campina, losing altitude at a predetermined rate at a constant airspeed. I had made a plot of the arched bomb run with notations of what our altitude and time should be at certain intervals along the bomb run. We were right on the mark. The plot was laid out on the navigator’s table behind me. As I was turned to check it, I felt a sudden tight steep, hard right turn being made. Instantly I pressed my throat mike, yelling “WRONG TURN, BOB! WRONG TURN!” Apparently the Group lead had mistaken Tragoviste for Campina. We’d been informed that there was a large cement factory at Tragoviste. I’d never observed a cement factory from the air, but there was no mistake here. White dust covered everything—structures, trees, roads—like fresh snow covering the landscape. Perhaps unnecessarily, I pointed out the leader’s error and that we should hold our bombs. Fortunately, the Group lead recognized the error and was now making a tight, climbing u-turn to the left, and we followed suit. These right, then left, tight aerial u-turns, with some 30 B-24 bombers, without collisions was a miracle in itself. We
could see our target across the rugged hills separating the two valleys. Surely our aerial armada was also seen, and the defenders alerted. Next another hard right, diving turn had to be executed to get to the briefed 250 feet/200mph combo to insure accurate results with our simple bombsight, manned by bombardier George Makin. We were being met with a barrage of ground fire. Our target structure had been hit, as briefed, by the lead element—supposedly with 45-minute delay-fused bombs. But the structure exploded in front of us, throwing up fire-laced black smoke and debris higher than our 250 foot altitude. This was not supposed to happen! I was returning fire with our 50-caliber nose guns, firing into the smoke and the flame-hidden source of the tracer shells coming toward us. Suddenly, out the corner of my eye, I saw an arm-sized stream of fuel exiting through the right waist window of left wingman Lt Hughes’ bomber, a gunner framed against the stream, and more fuel pouring from the bomb bay. “PULL UP, PETE! PULL UP! PULL UP!” I screamed, at least in my head. But Pete stayed in formation as we entered the flames and smoke rising from the refinery, his bombs going into the target along with the rest of the element’s. As they passed through the smoke and flame of the exploding boiler, the stream of fuel from the punctured tank ignited. The huge Spring 2013 • Friends Journal
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bomber resembled a meteor as flames streamed behind it. Pete slipped under the formation, apparently attempting a wheels-up landing in a narrow, nearly dry, steam bed. He was doing a good job piloting the stricken plane, but in trying to clear a small footbridge, a wing caught a bank of the stream, causing the bomber to cartwheel to its tragic flaming end. We felt that no one could survive the crash, but we learned a year later that two of the gunners lived. Pete could have pulled up as soon as he was hit and possibly have made a successful crash landing. He elected, however, to deliver his bombs to the target. With this decision, Pete lost his life, and Bob Wright lost his best friend. For his uncommon bravery that day, witnessed in its entirety by Wright’s crew, Hughes was one of the three men who posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor. In keeping with Col Wood’s instructions, we “hit the deck,” lifting up only to go over trees, wires, houses, and other obstacles. One plane came back with corn stalks caught in their bomb bay doors. As we lifted over these obstacles, I could see B-24s by the dozens to the southeast, swarming in confusion in the smoke-filled sky. The groups that attacked Ploesti refineries were not having things as easy as we had at Campina. As we roared along “on the deck,” I had a couple opportunities to do some strafing. A few miles south of the target, I spotted a group of three huge storage tanks with a small shack next to them. Firing with the left 50-caliber nose gun, my aim was a little low, kicking up dust as the tracers “walked” into the nearest tank, igniting the resulting streams shooting from the tank. I vividly recall seeing a fellow dart from the shack, stop abruptly, turn and dash back into the shack—all in a matter of seconds. The gunners and I continued firing only at anything refinery related. At one point I saw moving smoke rising over trees to our left. Surmising it was from a moving train, I alerted the top turret and left waist gunners. As we cleared the trees, we fired in unison. “CEASE FIRE!” yelled Bob Wright. It was a passenger train, loaded down with people, clinging to the sides and tops of the coaches. We’d been strongly admonished to avoid harming civilians. We continued our very low-level exit all the way to the Danube river. As one would expect in August, many people were sunbathing on the beaches and swimming in the river. Some waved at us as we sped by. A small boy flung a stone at us as we passed over him. We were only a few minutes removed from the havoc we had wrought, but it seemed quite peaceful below us again. Because we were flying so low, these scenes were very clear. We now began a shallow climb to clear the mountains looming in the distance. The “buzzing fun” was over.
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Friends Journal • Spring 2013
Just as we were crossing the highest peaks of the rugged Balkan Mountains, Tailgunner John Ritchie on the intercom reported a 389th B-24 below us at seven o’clock with #4 engine feathered. Although we’d been warned not to play “nursemaid” to any damaged aircraft, we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave a friend in need of protection. Wright canvassed the crew as to whether we disregard the order or not. It was a unanimous “Disregard.” We made a wide 360-degree turn, pulling up off the right wing of Frank McLaughlin’s Old Irish crew. Throttling back to stay with Mac, we watched our scattered groupmates and other B-24s disappear into the southwest. It was a lonely feeling. We were concerned about possible interception by German fighters from Greece and/or Crete. Fortunately we encountered no enemy aircraft, although we did observe some at a distance in the late afternoon, but they did not approach us. When well over the Mediterranean Sea, we waggled our wings and headed for Berka 4, landing some 14 1/2 hours since take off. McLaughlin arrived about ten minutes later. Interrogation followed. Much of it concerned the loss of Hughes’ crew, which tempered the satisfaction of returning safely ourselves. The feeling of joy at again setting foot on solid earth is beyond description. That morning I had wondered if we would see our desert home again. I thanked God, too, for our good fortune in coming through the ordeal without a scratch. After a meal of cold hamburgers and coffee, we wearily dragged ourselves to our dusty but welcome cots. As I lay there, I could see through my tent opening into Pete Hughes’ tent, and I thought about him. I didn’t dwell on it long because sleep was soon upon me. It had been a long, busy day. Jim McClain completed 27 missions before returning to the states to take command of a navigation teaching squadron at Hondo, Texas. Although he intended to make the Air Corps his career, his father’s strong objection, “You’ll be nothing but a flying bum if you don’t finish college!” caused him to rethink his career intention, opt out of staying on active duty, and resume his studies at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. He remained in the Reserves until he received his honorable discharge in 1963. McClain remained active in field sales and management in electric housewares and later, personal care products, then as a contract consultant in the latter field until January 2001, two months shy of his 78th birthday. Jim McCain (left) and John Tucholski at the 389BG Reunion in 1997