The Ploesti Raid (Long Message)
Diaphus
raid because I'm working on one for a friend of mine who was in "Killer"
Kane's 98th Bomb Group during that raid. At that time, I mentioned that
if anyone was interested in his story, to let me know and I'd e-mail them
personally.
I got so many responses I can't really contact everyone directly, so if
the group will indulge me, I'll post some particulars directly to the
group.
My friend's name is Bob Rans. At the time of the Ploesti raid he was a
sergeant gunner on the 'Yen Tu', assigned to the 98th Bomb Group, which at
that time was part of the 9th Air Force. The 'Yen Tu' (a/c 42-40520 call
letter M) was a fairly new plane, which had been flown from the States by
her crew (including Bob) shortly before Ploesti, their third and final
mission.
When they arrived in North Africa (Cairo), they were sent on 2 weeks R&R
so that the plane could be outfitted and repainted for the desert. Bob
said that when you looked down the flight line, you could see about every
variation of Desert Sand ("pink") possible. The Yen Tu was pretty clean
in comparison to most and Bob clearly remembers the undersides as 'Sky
Blue'.
The 98th's target at Ploesti was "White IV", the Astra Romana refinery.
Yen Tu was in the fifth (and smallest) of five waves of 98th B-24's
scheduled to cross the target. She was on the far left of the line.
Bob's job was to photograph (through the tunnel gun opening) the bombs
going off as they left the target. The different waves had different fuse
settings so the bombs wouldn't start exploding until the last wave passed.
The aircraft wave that Yen Tu was in were (left to right), Yen Tu,
Skipper, Kate Smith, Vulgar Virgin, Baby, Jersey Jackass and Semper Felix.
Skipper didn't make it to Ploesti. I'm not sure but somewhere along the
line they aborted. Baby lost an engine at the IP and also aborted.
If you've read Ploesti history, you'll know that due to various
communication and navigation snafu's, by the time Kane's group got on
target, it had already been mistakenly attacked by another group and the
Germans and Rumanians were fully alerted. As the 98th apporached the
target on a line paralleling railroad tracks they were caught in a
crossfire between flak around the refinery and a flak train running along
the railroad.
None of the 5 planes that were in Bob's wave exited the target and only 9
crew members made it out of their planes (3 each from Yen Tu and Jersey
Jackass, only 1 survivor from each of the other 3 planes). In Bob's case,
all he recalls is that they were on their bomb run and there was a BOOM
and the plane was engulfed in flames. His guess is that they took a flak
hit in the belly tanks that had been installed to provide the range to get
to the target and back. Only he and two other gunners made it out of the
middle fuselage. Bob said that when you lined them up side by side on the
ground, you could tell the order in which they bailed out by the amount of
burns. He was second man out, with burns on his face, ears and hands.
He and the other crew members were captured by the Rumanians and remained
prisoners of war with them for the duration of the war. He has good
memories of the Rumanians (or as good as you can under the circumstances).
The survivors were treated pretty well, all things considered; the
Rumanians refused repeatedly to turn the Ploesti survivors over to the
Germans.
Bob is now the only living survivor from his crew, and until I showed him
a picture of the Yen Tu in Mike Hill's "Black Sunday" (p. 243), he hadn't
"seen" her since the raid. He was so amazed when he saw the picture he
jumped about 4 feet in the air! That's when I decided to build his plane,
not one of the "fabled ones' that we've all read about, but one of the
group that got the job done and paid the price for it.
Sorry for the length of this but now I think you can see why I posted it
as an open letter to the group!
Jack Gartner (IPMS 30538)
dia...@aol.com
Mshakar
in the Web Site World War II - 54 years later. The address is:
http://www.webcom.com/%7Ejbd/ww2.html
There is a section called what my father, mother, uncle, etc did during
the war...
Michael
William Reece
What a fantastic story. You are very lucky to have such a resource to
work with and the inspriation. I've worked with several vets and it is
very rewarding modeling. The look on their faces when they see that model
finished. I wouldn't take a million dollars for it.
William
Scott Hemsley
: work with and the inspriation. I've worked with several vets and it is
: very rewarding modeling. The look on their faces when they see that model
: finished. I wouldn't take a million dollars for it.
I agree. I've had few go through some pretty moving experiences when they
got 'their aircraft'. I've also had cause to do a model or two, for the
surviving relatives of WW2 RCAF killed in action. IMO, a much better feeling
than getting 'gold' in competition.
Scott
SGordon12
Thanks, for the post. Do not apoligize, I wish we had more stuff like
this!
Stewart