A CALL TO HONOR - The background to my painting depicting the Lloyd Hughes crew. (c) 2010 Wade Meyers
The Mission -
Sunday, August 1, 1943. The objective today is Germany's main natural oil source - the refineries at and near Ploesti, Romania. One-fourth of Nazi Germany's entire fuel demand comes from these complexes. The plants are especially important as a source of fuel for the Eastern Front campaign, and our Russian allies are anxious to have them out of commission. Long on our hit list as well, many plans have come and gone to wipe out this close grouping of vital targets, but until recently none were practical or effective. We now have staging bases in North Africa - and the right aircraft in sufficient numbers - available to destroy the target and severely cripple the enemy's ability to wage war. The Consolidated B-24D Liberator has been selected as the delivery platform since it has the range, speed, and payload to do the job, and the crews of select B-24 groups have been practicing for this moment ...
The Plan -
The overall mission that day called for a 2,700 mile round trip of nearly 14 hours. Code named OPERATION TIDAL WAVE, five heavy bomber groups - 178 aircraft, 1,764 aircrew - were slated to fly the mission. Two of the groups, the 98th and 376th, were IX Bomber Command assets already in-theater. They were joined by three groups (44th, 93rd, and 389th) TDY from the VIII Bomber Command based in England. The idea was to strike the closely-grouped refineries with precision timing and bombing accuracy while minimizing the chance of errant bombs hitting the nearby civilian areas and reducing the B-24's exposure to flak and fighters. For these reasons, the B-24s would cross their targets at very low altitude, averaging 100-300 feet based on after-action reports. Precise navigation was critical. Five primary targets surrounding the city of Ploesti, coded Targets WHITE I - V, were selected. The WHITE strike force consisted of the 376th (lead group; assigned WHITE I: the Romana Americana refinery), the 93rd (split force targets of WHITE II: Concordia Vega, and WHITE III: Standard Petrol Block and nearby Unirea Sperantza refineries), the 98th (WHITE IV: the combined Astra Romana-Phoenix Orion plant), and one formation of the 44th Bomb Group (assigned WHITE V: Columbia Aquila refinery).
In addition, the Creditul Minier refinery at Brazi (designated Target BLUE, assigned to a separate 44th Bomb Group formation), roughly four miles south of Ploesti (according to my Google Earth plot) and the Steau Romana facility at Campina (Target RED; 389th Bomb Group), approximately nineteen miles northwest of Ploesti, were added to the WHITE targets for a total of seven main objectives that day. If the mission were flown as planned, maximum accuracy of the bombs with minimum loss of planes and crews were hoped for, but the leaders of the mission told their officer aircrew members at a special pre-mission briefing that 50% losses could be expected. Further, it was stressed that the target was so important that 100% losses were acceptable if the targets were to be destroyed. For these reasons, this mission was strictly voluntary, with no punishment for those electing not to go. Nobody chose to stay behind.
The Sky Scorpions -
The least combat-experienced of the five groups - the Ploesti mission was only their seventh operation - Col. Jack Wood's 389th Bomb Group Sky Scorpions were nonetheless highly disciplined, which would come in handy just prior to the target. They were tasked with hitting the refinery at Campina, the northernmost objective. Their brand-new Olive Drab Liberators had slightly better range than the older B-24s of the other groups, and as such they "lucked out" in getting the farthest target ... all to themselves. To help with the long duration, each of the 178 Liberators designated for the mission was fitted with a 391-gallon auxiliary fuel tank in the left front bomb bay, giving the newer B-24s 3,100 gallons of usable gas.
The 389th's flight plan had them turning left and away from the main strike force at the city of Pitesti checkpoint, then heading northeasterly alone toward the Transylvanian Alps to a prominent monastery high on a ridge. Using this site as an IP (Initial Point), the Sky Scorpions would then hop over the ridgeline and turn right (southward) down the Prahova river valley and drop down to their final bombing altitude for the run-in to the target straight ahead. Due to low clouds covering the tops of some of the higher mountains, the monastery was obscured and relying on dead reckoning with very few other landmarks to go by the group turned early down the wrong valley! Quickly realizing the mistake with warnings from other navigators, the entire group of twenty-nine planes remarkably maintained formation integrity as the lead ship executed a near 180 degree left turn, skimmed over the correct ridgeline and descended in a right turn - this time on the correct final approach path to the Campina refinery complex.
Once established on the final target bearing of 143 degrees the 389th's RED Target force would, at the four-mile mark, split up and widen out into three trail formations of 3-aircraft sections to allow each successive wave to attack the target from three directions nearly simultaneously, i.e., each wave had a three-aircraft section going straight at the target, one three-aircraft section attacking obliquely from the left, and another attacking obliquely from the right. This unique approach would hopefully confuse the enemy defenses. The 389th actually pulled off excellent passes at the Campina target with minimum losses and significant damage to the main buildings of interest, but unknown to all of those on the mission, including the planners, German General Alfred Gerstenberg, charged with defending the Romanian oil plants, had built one of the strongest integrated defense networks in existence at the time around the refineries. Communication and preparation were the keys, and his wide dispersal of many gun positions and flak trains along likely approaches to the targets ensured that with only a little warning the defenses would be ready for any attack. They would get that warning ... primarily as a result of the infamous "wrong turn" by the lead 376th Bomb Group as they turned at the wrong IP and headed not towards the Ploesti area, but towards Bucharest, bringing the entire area defenses to an early high alert. It was the equivalent of radioing ahead and blowing the trumpets.
2nd Lt. Lloyd H. "Pete" Hughes, Jr. -
B-24 Liberator pilot Lloyd Hughes, a 22-year old Louisiana native and Texas A&M student, commanded 'Ole Kickapoo', flying right wing in the fourth 3-ship section to attack the target at Campina. On the approach to the target, Hughes' Liberator was hit hard in the belly and left wing root by bursts of gunfire as the bombers flew directly over gun positions near Cornul De Sus, just a few miles north of the Campina oil refinery and just after the 389th's formation had split off into three attack groups. Hughes was made aware of heavy "sheets" of fuel streaming from his belly and left wing, but he responded that he had to get his bombs on target and he elected to remain in his assigned position and drop his bombs rather than make a relatively safe and controlled belly landing in the fields before the target. The citation for Hughes' posthumous Medal of Honor reads as follows:
"The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to
HUGHES, LLOYD H. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 564th Bombardment Squadron, 389th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force. Place and date: Ploesti Raid, Rumania, 1 August 1943. Entered service at: San Antonio, Tex. Born: 12 July 1921, Alexandria, La. G.O. No: 17, 26 February 1944.
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry in action and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. On August 1, 1943, 2d Lt. Hughes served in the capacity of pilot of a heavy bombardment aircraft participating in a long and hazardous minimum-altitude attack against the Axis oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania, launched from the northern shores of Africa. Flying in the last formation to attack the target, he arrived in the target area after previous flights had thoroughly alerted the enemy defenses. Approaching the target through intense and accurate antiaircraft fire and dense balloon barrages at dangerously low altitude, his plane received several direct hits from both large and small caliber antiaircraft guns which seriously damaged his aircraft, causing sheets of escaping gasoline to stream from the bomb bay and from the left wing. This damage was inflicted at a time prior to reaching the target when 2d Lt. Hughes could have made a forced landing in any of the grain fields readily available at that time. The target area was blazing with burning oil tanks and damaged refinery installations from which flames leaped high above the bombing level of the formation. With full knowledge of the consequences of entering this blazing inferno when his airplane was profusely leaking gasoline in two separate locations, 2d Lt. Hughes, motivated only by his high conception of duty which called for the destruction of his assigned target at any cost, did not elect to make a forced landing or turn back from the attack. Instead, rather than jeopardize the formation and the success of the attack, he unhesitatingly entered the blazing area and dropped his bomb load with great precision. After successfully bombing the objective, his aircraft emerged from the conflagration with the left wing aflame. Only then did he attempt a forced landing, but because of the advanced stage of the fire enveloping his aircraft the plane crashed and was consumed. By 2d Lt. Hughes' heroic decision to complete his mission regardless of the consequences in utter disregard of his own life, and by his gallant and valorous execution of this decision, he has rendered a service to our country in the defeat of our enemies which will everlastingly be outstanding in the annals of our Nation's history."
Amazingly, two gunners survived the crash and became Prisoners of War. Every member of Hughes's crew received the Distinguished Service Cross, now known as the Air Force Cross, the second-highest decoration for valor in combat.
My painting "A Call to Honor" -
As a military history enthusiast, I was of course aware of Lloyd Hughes and the other heroes of the famous Ploesti raid of August 1943. I knew that five Medals of Honor were awarded for actions that day, a record that still stands for any single Air Force combat mission. However, it wasn't until challenged by collector Roger Watts to commemorate Hughes and his crew that I really got into the history of this raid with an emphasis on Hughes and the 389th Bomb Group. The more I dug for information, the more I wanted to learn, and soon my reference table was filled with teetering piles of reference materials supplied by Roger and my own digging. Roger's brief was simple: "Let's remember that crew and what they did".
With that in mind, and after finally reaching a point where I felt that I knew the particulars well enough to get out the sketchbook, I first came up with a detailed plot of the 389th's formation as they approached their target at Campina. I felt sure that other B-24s would be visible in our painting, so I had to know who was where - and when. Once I knew that I began to sketch ideas and figure out where I wanted to place the viewer's position relative to the known landmarks and formation of bombers. Do we want to see the refinery in the background, a staple of almost every Ploesti painting by many well-known aviation artists? If so, we'd have two choices to see both Hughes and the oil complex in the same frame: first, we could place the viewer behind Hughes as he approached the target; the already-burning plant would be in front of him as he approached. I dismissed that idea early on since a rear view of the B-24 with the refinery beyond, to my mind, would focus not on the crew, since they would be hidden from our sight, but on the details of the bomber itself and that of the target beyond, both commanding the eye's attention and interest.
Next, if we wanted a frontal aspect to the B-24 with the target in the background, similar to almost every painting of the mission that I've seen, we'd have to show Lt. Hughes and his crew post-target fighting for their lives with their airplane being consumed by fire. Yes, it's important to remember that selfless act of sacrifice, but since there are in fact a famous set of photographs of the last moments of the Hughes B-24 taken from a nearby aircraft, I decided to let the power of that actual combat photography stand as the visual testament to their actions. It is one of only two (if I recall correctly) Medal of Honor acts ever recorded by cameras.
One other direction I could have gone would be to show Hughes's B-24 on its approach to the target as described by Philip Ardery in his excellent book, "Bomber Pilot". Hughes was flying off Ardery's right wing, and Ardery, a mission command pilot flying in the copilot's seat, had an excellent view of 'Ole Kickapoo' as she streamed large amounts of fuel just before the target. His description of the scene formed the basis for the Medal of Honor citation reproduced above. Good idea, but the image I had in mind for that particular scene cut out several other B-24s I wanted to show to help emphasize the actual formation as they approached the target.
No, for several reasons not the least of which is that the details of the raid are very well known, and also not wishing to paint a scene similar to other depictions of the mission, I am choosing to show 'Ole Kickapoo' and her crew as I'm sure they would want to be remembered: flying proudly together in the strong and faithful ship they took across the Atlantic to England and then to Africa and finally Campina. In my painting they will be seen together passing over Cornul De Sus, about three miles from the target and just before being hit by the ground fire that mortally crippled their bomber. I want to emphasize the elegant beauty of the B-24 Liberator's Davis wing for one thing, while at the same time the view I have chosen will allow me as the artist to get a few faces in there as seen through the plexiglass. Faces of courage, faces of destiny ... faces of young men who were challenged by fate and unswervingly answered their Call to Honor. There could be no other title for this painting.
The Hughes crew (see photo below) -
B-24D Liberator, serial 42-40753 'OLE KICKAPOO', tail code "J" (named by crew the night before the raid but did not display nose art) 564th Bomb Squadron, 389th Bomb Group
Pilot: 2Lt Lloyd H. Hughes, Jr. KIA; Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. Copilot: 2Lt Ronald L. Helder. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. Navigator: 2Lt Sidney A. Pear. KIA (died of wounds August 6, 1943, surgery hospital in Campina, Rumania.); Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. Bombardier: 2nd Lt John A. McLoughlin. KIA (died of wounds on August 3, 1943, surgery hospital in Campina, Rumania); Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. Engineer/Top Turret Gunner: T/Sgt Joseph E. Mix. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. Radio Operator: T/Sgt Louis N. Kase. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. Waist Gunner: S/Sgt Malcolm C. Dalton. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. Waist Gunner: S/Sgt Edmond H. Smith. POW; Distinguished Service Cross. Tail Gunner: S/Sgt Thomas A. Hoff. POW; Distinguished Service Cross. Tunnel Gunner: Sgt Avis K. Wilson. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
* * * * *
The final assessment is that the raid was a qualified success. The White Force's effort was hampered by the lead ship's serious navigational error (turned too early at the wrong IP), but most of the force recovered somewhat and managed to bomb their assigned - and some non-assigned targets. The latter bombings caused great confusion on the part of a couple of groups who approached their correct target to find it had already been bombed! All told the damage to most of the targeted refineries was significant. On the debit side the cost was heavy: 41 B-24s were shot down, 13 lost in operational accidents, 7 Liberators and crews were interned in Turkey after forced landings there, and 532 of the mission aircrew were lost from all causes.
Completed 2012
Collection of Roger Watts
A CALL TO HONOR - The background to my painting depicting the Lloyd Hughes crew.
(c) 2010 Wade Meyers
The Mission -
Sunday, August 1, 1943. The objective today is Germany's main natural oil source - the refineries at and near Ploesti, Romania. One-fourth of Nazi Germany's entire fuel demand comes from these complexes. The plants are especially important as a source of fuel for the Eastern Front campaign, and our Russian allies are anxious to have them out of commission. Long on our hit list as well, many plans have come and gone to wipe out this close grouping of vital targets, but until recently none were practical or effective. We now have staging bases in North Africa - and the right aircraft in sufficient numbers - available to destroy the target and severely cripple the enemy's ability to wage war. The Consolidated B-24D Liberator has been selected as the delivery platform since it has the range, speed, and payload to do the job, and the crews of select B-24 groups have been practicing for this moment ...
The Plan -
The overall mission that day called for a 2,700 mile round trip of nearly 14 hours. Code named OPERATION TIDAL WAVE, five heavy bomber groups - 178 aircraft, 1,764 aircrew - were slated to fly the mission. Two of the groups, the 98th and 376th, were IX Bomber Command assets already in-theater. They were joined by three groups (44th, 93rd, and 389th) TDY from the VIII Bomber Command based in England. The idea was to strike the closely-grouped refineries with precision timing and bombing accuracy while minimizing the chance of errant bombs hitting the nearby civilian areas and reducing the B-24's exposure to flak and fighters. For these reasons, the B-24s would cross their targets at very low altitude, averaging 100-300 feet based on after-action reports. Precise navigation was critical. Five primary targets surrounding the city of Ploesti, coded Targets WHITE I - V, were selected. The WHITE strike force consisted of the 376th (lead group; assigned WHITE I: the Romana Americana refinery), the 93rd (split force targets of WHITE II: Concordia Vega, and WHITE III: Standard Petrol Block and nearby Unirea Sperantza refineries), the 98th (WHITE IV: the combined Astra Romana-Phoenix Orion plant), and one formation of the 44th Bomb Group (assigned WHITE V: Columbia Aquila refinery).
In addition, the Creditul Minier refinery at Brazi (designated Target BLUE, assigned to a separate 44th Bomb Group formation), roughly four miles south of Ploesti (according to my Google Earth plot) and the Steau Romana facility at Campina (Target RED; 389th Bomb Group), approximately nineteen miles northwest of Ploesti, were added to the WHITE targets for a total of seven main objectives that day. If the mission were flown as planned, maximum accuracy of the bombs with minimum loss of planes and crews were hoped for, but the leaders of the mission told their officer aircrew members at a special pre-mission briefing that 50% losses could be expected. Further, it was stressed that the target was so important that 100% losses were acceptable if the targets were to be destroyed. For these reasons, this mission was strictly voluntary, with no punishment for those electing not to go. Nobody chose to stay behind.
The Sky Scorpions -
The least combat-experienced of the five groups - the Ploesti mission was only their seventh operation - Col. Jack Wood's 389th Bomb Group Sky Scorpions were nonetheless highly disciplined, which would come in handy just prior to the target. They were tasked with hitting the refinery at Campina, the northernmost objective. Their brand-new Olive Drab Liberators had slightly better range than the older B-24s of the other groups, and as such they "lucked out" in getting the farthest target ... all to themselves. To help with the long duration, each of the 178 Liberators designated for the mission was fitted with a 391-gallon auxiliary fuel tank in the left front bomb bay, giving the newer B-24s 3,100 gallons of usable gas.
The 389th's flight plan had them turning left and away from the main strike force at the city of Pitesti checkpoint, then heading northeasterly alone toward the Transylvanian Alps to a prominent monastery high on a ridge. Using this site as an IP (Initial Point), the Sky Scorpions would then hop over the ridgeline and turn right (southward) down the Prahova river valley and drop down to their final bombing altitude for the run-in to the target straight ahead. Due to low clouds covering the tops of some of the higher mountains, the monastery was obscured and relying on dead reckoning with very few other landmarks to go by the group turned early down the wrong valley! Quickly realizing the mistake with warnings from other navigators, the entire group of twenty-nine planes remarkably maintained formation integrity as the lead ship executed a near 180 degree left turn, skimmed over the correct ridgeline and descended in a right turn - this time on the correct final approach path to the Campina refinery complex.
Once established on the final target bearing of 143 degrees the 389th's RED Target force would, at the four-mile mark, split up and widen out into three trail formations of 3-aircraft sections to allow each successive wave to attack the target from three directions nearly simultaneously, i.e., each wave had a three-aircraft section going straight at the target, one three-aircraft section attacking obliquely from the left, and another attacking obliquely from the right. This unique approach would hopefully confuse the enemy defenses. The 389th actually pulled off excellent passes at the Campina target with minimum losses and significant damage to the main buildings of interest, but unknown to all of those on the mission, including the planners, German General Alfred Gerstenberg, charged with defending the Romanian oil plants, had built one of the strongest integrated defense networks in existence at the time around the refineries. Communication and preparation were the keys, and his wide dispersal of many gun positions and flak trains along likely approaches to the targets ensured that with only a little warning the defenses would be ready for any attack. They would get that warning ... primarily as a result of the infamous "wrong turn" by the lead 376th Bomb Group as they turned at the wrong IP and headed not towards the Ploesti area, but towards Bucharest, bringing the entire area defenses to an early high alert. It was the equivalent of radioing ahead and blowing the trumpets.
2nd Lt. Lloyd H. "Pete" Hughes, Jr. -
B-24 Liberator pilot Lloyd Hughes, a 22-year old Louisiana native and Texas A&M student, commanded 'Ole Kickapoo', flying right wing in the fourth 3-ship section to attack the target at Campina. On the approach to the target, Hughes' Liberator was hit hard in the belly and left wing root by bursts of gunfire as the bombers flew directly over gun positions near Cornul De Sus, just a few miles north of the Campina oil refinery and just after the 389th's formation had split off into three attack groups. Hughes was made aware of heavy "sheets" of fuel streaming from his belly and left wing, but he responded that he had to get his bombs on target and he elected to remain in his assigned position and drop his bombs rather than make a relatively safe and controlled belly landing in the fields before the target. The citation for Hughes' posthumous Medal of Honor reads as follows:
"The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to
HUGHES, LLOYD H.
(Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 564th Bombardment Squadron, 389th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force.
Place and date: Ploesti Raid, Rumania, 1 August 1943.
Entered service at: San Antonio, Tex.
Born: 12 July 1921, Alexandria, La.
G.O. No: 17, 26 February 1944.
Citation: For conspicuous gallantry in action and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. On August 1, 1943, 2d Lt. Hughes served in the capacity of pilot of a heavy bombardment aircraft participating in a long and hazardous minimum-altitude attack against the Axis oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania, launched from the northern shores of Africa. Flying in the last formation to attack the target, he arrived in the target area after previous flights had thoroughly alerted the enemy defenses. Approaching the target through intense and accurate antiaircraft fire and dense balloon barrages at dangerously low altitude, his plane received several direct hits from both large and small caliber antiaircraft guns which seriously damaged his aircraft, causing sheets of escaping gasoline to stream from the bomb bay and from the left wing. This damage was inflicted at a time prior to reaching the target when 2d Lt. Hughes could have made a forced landing in any of the grain fields readily available at that time. The target area was blazing with burning oil tanks and damaged refinery installations from which flames leaped high above the bombing level of the formation. With full knowledge of the consequences of entering this blazing inferno when his airplane was profusely leaking gasoline in two separate locations, 2d Lt. Hughes, motivated only by his high conception of duty which called for the destruction of his assigned target at any cost, did not elect to make a forced landing or turn back from the attack. Instead, rather than jeopardize the formation and the success of the attack, he unhesitatingly entered the blazing area and dropped his bomb load with great precision. After successfully bombing the objective, his aircraft emerged from the conflagration with the left wing aflame. Only then did he attempt a forced landing, but because of the advanced stage of the fire enveloping his aircraft the plane crashed and was consumed. By 2d Lt. Hughes' heroic decision to complete his mission regardless of the consequences in utter disregard of his own life, and by his gallant and valorous execution of this decision, he has rendered a service to our country in the defeat of our enemies which will everlastingly be outstanding in the annals of our Nation's history."
Amazingly, two gunners survived the crash and became Prisoners of War. Every member of Hughes's crew received the Distinguished Service Cross, now known as the Air Force Cross, the second-highest decoration for valor in combat.
My painting "A Call to Honor" -
As a military history enthusiast, I was of course aware of Lloyd Hughes and the other heroes of the famous Ploesti raid of August 1943. I knew that five Medals of Honor were awarded for actions that day, a record that still stands for any single Air Force combat mission. However, it wasn't until challenged by collector Roger Watts to commemorate Hughes and his crew that I really got into the history of this raid with an emphasis on Hughes and the 389th Bomb Group. The more I dug for information, the more I wanted to learn, and soon my reference table was filled with teetering piles of reference materials supplied by Roger and my own digging. Roger's brief was simple: "Let's remember that crew and what they did".
With that in mind, and after finally reaching a point where I felt that I knew the particulars well enough to get out the sketchbook, I first came up with a detailed plot of the 389th's formation as they approached their target at Campina. I felt sure that other B-24s would be visible in our painting, so I had to know who was where - and when. Once I knew that I began to sketch ideas and figure out where I wanted to place the viewer's position relative to the known landmarks and formation of bombers. Do we want to see the refinery in the background, a staple of almost every Ploesti painting by many well-known aviation artists? If so, we'd have two choices to see both Hughes and the oil complex in the same frame: first, we could place the viewer behind Hughes as he approached the target; the already-burning plant would be in front of him as he approached. I dismissed that idea early on since a rear view of the B-24 with the refinery beyond, to my mind, would focus not on the crew, since they would be hidden from our sight, but on the details of the bomber itself and that of the target beyond, both commanding the eye's attention and interest.
Next, if we wanted a frontal aspect to the B-24 with the target in the background, similar to almost every painting of the mission that I've seen, we'd have to show Lt. Hughes and his crew post-target fighting for their lives with their airplane being consumed by fire. Yes, it's important to remember that selfless act of sacrifice, but since there are in fact a famous set of photographs of the last moments of the Hughes B-24 taken from a nearby aircraft, I decided to let the power of that actual combat photography stand as the visual testament to their actions. It is one of only two (if I recall correctly) Medal of Honor acts ever recorded by cameras.
One other direction I could have gone would be to show Hughes's B-24 on its approach to the target as described by Philip Ardery in his excellent book, "Bomber Pilot". Hughes was flying off Ardery's right wing, and Ardery, a mission command pilot flying in the copilot's seat, had an excellent view of 'Ole Kickapoo' as she streamed large amounts of fuel just before the target. His description of the scene formed the basis for the Medal of Honor citation reproduced above. Good idea, but the image I had in mind for that particular scene cut out several other B-24s I wanted to show to help emphasize the actual formation as they approached the target.
No, for several reasons not the least of which is that the details of the raid are very well known, and also not wishing to paint a scene similar to other depictions of the mission, I am choosing to show 'Ole Kickapoo' and her crew as I'm sure they would want to be remembered: flying proudly together in the strong and faithful ship they took across the Atlantic to England and then to Africa and finally Campina. In my painting they will be seen together passing over Cornul De Sus, about three miles from the target and just before being hit by the ground fire that mortally crippled their bomber. I want to emphasize the elegant beauty of the B-24 Liberator's Davis wing for one thing, while at the same time the view I have chosen will allow me as the artist to get a few faces in there as seen through the plexiglass. Faces of courage, faces of destiny ... faces of young men who were challenged by fate and unswervingly answered their Call to Honor. There could be no other title for this painting.
The Hughes crew (see photo below) -
B-24D Liberator, serial 42-40753 'OLE KICKAPOO', tail code "J"
(named by crew the night before the raid but did not display nose art)
564th Bomb Squadron, 389th Bomb Group
Pilot: 2Lt Lloyd H. Hughes, Jr. KIA; Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously.
Copilot: 2Lt Ronald L. Helder. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
Navigator: 2Lt Sidney A. Pear. KIA (died of wounds August 6, 1943, surgery hospital in Campina, Rumania.); Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
Bombardier: 2nd Lt John A. McLoughlin. KIA (died of wounds on August 3, 1943, surgery hospital in Campina, Rumania); Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
Engineer/Top Turret Gunner: T/Sgt Joseph E. Mix. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
Radio Operator: T/Sgt Louis N. Kase. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
Waist Gunner: S/Sgt Malcolm C. Dalton. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
Waist Gunner: S/Sgt Edmond H. Smith. POW; Distinguished Service Cross.
Tail Gunner: S/Sgt Thomas A. Hoff. POW; Distinguished Service Cross.
Tunnel Gunner: Sgt Avis K. Wilson. KIA; Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
* * * * *
The final assessment is that the raid was a qualified success. The White Force's effort was hampered by the lead ship's serious navigational error (turned too early at the wrong IP), but most of the force recovered somewhat and managed to bomb their assigned - and some non-assigned targets. The latter bombings caused great confusion on the part of a couple of groups who approached their correct target to find it had already been bombed! All told the damage to most of the targeted refineries was significant. On the debit side the cost was heavy: 41 B-24s were shot down, 13 lost in operational accidents, 7 Liberators and crews were interned in Turkey after forced landings there, and 532 of the mission aircrew were lost from all causes.