Tidal Wave Footage Photos, 15th AAF and Luftwaffe, 'Black Sunday', 1 August 1943

Denes, thanks for posting the CATERPILLAR train of the AA , I was particularly interested to know if you have better photos of it and its location in respect to the refinaries ( N or South) I think the 44th bmb grp formation was hit by this train....bellow is a photos taken by a fix camera on the back of a B-24 of the 376th Bmb who flew mistakenly over one of the top ARR A/A command and control centers near Ploesti....it seems it was built by German specialists and manned also with German A/A personnel. from the book PLOESTI RAID THROUGH THE LENS and THE BLACK SUNDAY ( in the small rectangulatr box is the intelligence analysis after return to Lybia by specialists)

AL

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 24, 2005 10:57 pm

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The photo of the B24 banking to the left as we view the picture was named "The Sandman". I was the pilot of this plane. Actually the negative should have been revirsed as the smoke stacks were off the left wing as we view the picture. The reason that you may see this picture as posted, is that the camera mounted in the rear of the plane called Chug A Lug and piloted by Capt. LeRoy was actually photographing a mirror extending below the bottom of the plane. Thus all pictures were in revirse. My book "Burning Hitler's Black Gold" is a true story of this mission from information relating to how the commanders viewed the low level idea and how they felt about fuel consumption and fighter protection. We were over emeny territory for all but 3 hours of the 14-15 hours we were in the air. No other book has interviews directly from the KEY people who flew the mission. I';m referring to General Jake Smart the Air Force's actual planner of the Ploesti to General K.K. Compton who was the actual leader of all 177 B24s from take off to landing. Compton's error in navigation was a horrible mistake and created a stream of problems for every one of the 4 groups. My book is the TRUE Story of the August 1st, 1943 Low Level Ploesti. I can send it anywhere in the world. Contact me at rwsternfels@prodigy.net for information. Be sure to use Ploesti Bob as your subject. [QUOTE]

Bob

Welcome to this forum . As you may recollect I was in touch with ya through my other email address regarding your book. I wanted to buy your book but sending cheques from Switzerland to the US is not practicable due to high sure charges in addition it may take weeks until the local Bank will confirm. I can use only credit card or wire transfers and so far you didnt reply me.

Secondly I was in touch with people with spoke with Compton and he insisted that the errand flight to Boucharest along with 40 planes wasnt a severe decision at his end because after all between Ploesti and Buc at 280 mph KIAS the formation couldnt have turned smoothly to Ploesti without overshooting the target and his intentions were to make a shallow turn through Boucharest, which I think is nonsense ...as a matter of fact Palm of Brewary Waggon and Lt Ramsy Pots left Compton formation on their own and reached Ploesti and bombed the target somehow.....there are many suggestions saying that Compton formation didn't even have the chance to drop their ordonance over the target and each one jettisoned their bombs on target of opportunity.

Finally Bob on our previous contacts I have asked you regarding the crew of the Sand Witch, Jersey Bounce, YEN TU no crews nor aircarft photos anywhere ...can you help ?

Thanks
Alex

PS : I will get in touch with you through my email address

Astra refineries located South Ploesti still stands today as "Rompetrol" refineries. Picture courtesy Dan Melinte 2005.


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Great photo of the Astra , howabout Campina refinaries ? are they still standing? any B-24 remains left anywhere in Roumania ?

Bellow a group photo of the 44th Bmb Grp 566 Sqd Ploesti veterans as they look today

Al

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Gunnery School for those who flew on TW at Tyndall Air Field Florida, courtesy TW Group Database

Al

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3 Pilots of the 44th Bmb Grp who returned from Ploesti on vacation leave in Egypt, courtesy TW Data Base Group

Al

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Here is the dramatic story of the SAD SACK II of the 44th Bmb Grp piloted by Henry Lasco which managed to make a crash alnding in Ploesti , from GREEN HARBOR PUBLICATIONS 44th Memorial

LASCO, HENRY A. Jr. Pilot 1st Lt. Chicago, POW, returned to duty Illinois
KILL, JOSEPH F. Co-pilot 2nd Lt. Chicago, POW Illinois
STENBORN, HARRY W. Navigator 2nd Lt. Wellington, KIA, buried Ardennes (B-24-4) Kansas
SCRIVEN, DALE R. Bombardier 2nd Lt. Boulder, KIA Colorado
RASPOTNIK, LEONARD L. (506th Sq.) Engineer T/Sgt. Des Moines, KIA Iowa
SPIVEY, JOSEPH B. Jr. Radio Oper. S/Sgt. Windsor, KIA South Carolina
DECREVEL, CHARLES P. Asst. Eng. S/Sgt. San Francisco, POW, returned to duty California
SHAFFER, ALBERT L. Asst. Radio S/Sgt. Los Angeles, POW, returned to duty CaliforniaWOOD, THOMAS M. Tail Turret Sgt. Ackerly, KIA Texas

1st Lt. Henry A. Lasco, Jr. was the pilot of the third 66th Squadron aircraft lost, flying as left wingman in the fourth wave. This crew was flying their seventh mission. Flying with them this day as left waist gunner was Charles DeCrevel, who had served in the RAF. This crew’s story ismore complete than for most of the crews and probably is typical for many.DeCrevel stated that, “Other planes were riding on flak like trucks on a highway. We caught a hail of small-arms fire and something went through my thigh. I was strafing gun crews on a roof
top and noted out of the corner of my eye that my interphone box vanished from the wall. I donned my parachute pack and stuck my head out the window. I noted a tree at eye level. I ‘heroically’ decided to stay with the ship.” Pilot Lasco: “Our target was on fire with very heavy black smoke and fire high in the sky. Colonel Johnson headed into this conflagration and we followed.” Co-pilot Kill: “I wasn’t paying any attention to where we were going except to watch a couple of
rivets on the lead airplane. I glanced up ahead and thought ‘How in Christ’s name can we get through that?’ I can’t push her down, so I hollered to Lasco to get on the controls with me.” The bombardier called for corrections for target, which was the boiler works and tool shed. The back end called that the tail gunner, Thomas M. Wood, was dead. And at ‘bombs away’ the navigator, Harry W. Stenborn, was badly shot through the chest. He somehow managed to crawl through the ship to the rear, where he collapsed and eventually died. Lasco shouted, “Number two is out. She won’t feather.” And the aircraft plunged into the inferno nothing but smoke and flames. After coming out, this ship joined a formation of six aircraft while the 88s were shooting at them at very short range. The top turret gunner, Leonard L. Raspotnik, and radio operator Joseph Spivey, were hit and the decision was made to head for Turkey. DeCrevel then began to have grave doubts if anyone was alive on the flight deck. Wherever he looked he could see holes as big as his fist and the left wing was almost scraping the ground. SAD SACK II was vibrating badly and extremely rough to handle. From seven to nine Me 109s were queuing up to take shots at them as they made level, dead astern attacks. DeCrevel shot down the first one and Al Shaffer, at the other waist position, and standing on one leg (the other almost completely shot off) scored hits on it. The interior of the plane was full of little white puffs, like firecrackers going off. Ammunition was exploding in the boxes and DeCrevel said that he could feel “fingers” plucking at his clothing. “I received shrapnel wounds in the back, head and knee, and was floored by a 13-mm in the butt. The parachute pack in that area saved me.” Lasco continued, “We were very low to the ground, probably fifty feet, when a Me 109 circled around us and came in very shallow at 10 o’clock on my side. I saw his wing light up and felt a tremendous sock on the jaw. I was shot through both cheeks and upper palate. I had no strength. Icouldn’t see anything.” Co-pilot Kill: “Lasco called for flaps – no flaps. I reached down and started pumping them by hand. We were headed for a cornfield. I glanced at Lasco. He was lying over the control column, all bloodied. I was coming to horizon level. We were left wing low, headed straight in. I kicked hard right rudder and picked up the wing.”DeCrevel continued

TO BE CONTINUED.......................................................

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 25, 2005 01:23 pm

SAD SACK II .........Continued


The pilot must have cut all his engines to crash her in – then I heard a
scream. The navigator was kneeling on the catwalk and holding on to the open door to the bomb bay. He looked like he had caught an 88 right in the chest. The flesh was stripped away and I could see the white ribs. I wanted to help him but there wasn’t time. We were all dead, anyway. I had made up my mind to shoot it out with that sonofabitch on our tail. I leaned out the window and swiveled the gun parallel to the fuselage and fired inside the fin and below the horizontal
stabilizer. We hit the ground and my last view of aerial combat was of our left rudder disappearing in a puff of smoke. I tumbled head over heels in flame and tearing metal and hit the forward bulkhead with a sweet, black THUD. Then, immediate consciousness and a vision of green corn and blue sky from a bed of
hot coals. No plane to speak of, just a pile of burning junk. I staggered out of it, trying to run. Looked back – no Shaffer. Go back, drag him out and dump him about fifty yards off.” Kill: “Lasco was blindly thrashing around, pinned in his harness. All I could do was to tell him I couldn’t get out. Both of my legs were broken and the right foot was out of the socket at the ankle. Lasco somehow got loose and unfastened my legs from a tangle of wires and cables. He grabbed me under the arms and dragged me through a hole in the side of the fuselage … Then he seemed to wander off.” Lasco: “I went to look for aid for Joe’s legs which were bad, and my mouth was not in too good shape. I saw some peasants, but they ran away and then threw stones at me.” Kill: “Two other peasants jumped me and tore off my watch and ring, emptied my pockets and then belted me a beauty. I guess they figured I was about gone, anyway, what with the legs, a cracked forehead and bad burns. Surprisingly, I didn’t go out, although I prayed for unconsciousness.” DeCrevel: “I drug Shaffer a bit further; then stripped off my smoldering outer gear. Shaffer was hollering like hell. His leg looked like hamburger. No morphine. I gave him a cigarette, told him I’d go for help.” SAD SACK II’s sergeants spent their time in captivity in the officers’ camp because Lt. Kill was sharp enough to list all of them as officers. Sgt. Raspotnik died on the way to the hospital; Spivey was hit in stomach and died in the aircraft.

Probably the bf-109 was in fact IAR-80C of Lt.Barladeanu. The standard Bf-109 doesn't have guns in wings. The IAR 80 C had 4 Browning machineguns (7,9mm) and 2 Ikaria guns( 20mm) in the wings. The lights on the wings were from an ARR IAR fighter and not Bf-109.
The picture with Barladeanu next to Sad Sack II wreck confirm this theory.

Dan.

Yes most probably Dan, technically from the aircraft armament point of view, definetly yes..btw who was the manufacturer of the Ikaria 20mm ?

Al

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 25, 2005 02:05 pm

Dan and all here is the nose art of OLD BALDY ..I am very disappointed that 98th Heavy Bombardment Grp Homepage is empty and no one can help me out in trying to revive the legacy of this Bomb Group. The OLD BALDY which crashed on the Roumanian A/A battery is carries the same mistery ...no crew photos, no records no aircraft photos. The nose art is from BLACK SUNDAY by M.Hill

Alex

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Here's the photo of the JERSEY BOUNCE who went down near Ploesti ...only 4 of the crew survived and spent 18 months in POW detention in Roumania. The B-24 is seen on its way to the 15AF in Island during ferry flight. From 93rd Heavy Bomb Group memorial

Al

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Dan , here is the info on Henry Lasco JR the pilot of the SAD SACK II who was injured on his face by a ARR IAR81 burst into the cockpit ...this info was sent to me by Bob Sternfels the pilot of the SANDMAN

Hi Alex,
Henry A. Lasco, 18744 E. Mescalero Dr., Rio Verde, Az 85263-7171......
Talked with Henry a year ago so don't know his present health condition.
Henry was employed by 3M as sales manager and my brother was VP at 3M but
never talked about Ploesti until Henry was driving in a small town in
Arizona called Fountain Hills. As he passed my son's building he saw his law
office sign and knew there can't be too many Sternfels's. He stopped and
learned that I was in Southern Calif.. Small world.
Bob S.

The Ordeal of Sad Sack II
==================

The heroism of Sad Sack II's crew typified that of the more than 160 crews that bombed refineries at Ploesti in the low-level attack of Aug. 1, 1943.
Most readers of AIR FORCE Magazine are familiar with the Aug. 1, 1943, low-level attack on refineries near Ploesti, Romania. A carefully prepared plan for simultaneous strikes on assigned targets by a force of almost 170 B-24s was disrupted en route by bad weather and navigation error. It was, nevertheless, a day of unsurpassed heroism. Leaders of the five B-24 groups saved a broken plan from disaster--but at a terrible cost. Nearly one-third of the B-24 force was lost in combat or forced by battle damage to land in neutral Turkey.

Many stories and several books have been written about that mission, but less has been said about the heroism of individual crews. The story of Sad Sack II, a B-24 from the 66th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, epitomizes the valor and self-sacrifice of so many on that mission.

The 44th, an Eighth Air Force group, had been sent to North Africa to participate in the Ploesti mission. Col. Leon W. Johnson, commander of the 44th and later a four-star general, led 37 of his bombers on that mission.

Unlike the two groups that preceded him, Colonel Johnson turned at the correct initial point and led 16 of his planes to their target--the Columbia Aquila refinery--while 21 of his bombers broke off to attack another target. The 16 descended to their bombing altitude of 250 feet. They could see that their target had already been hit by another group in the confusion of the disrupted plan, but Colonel Johnson, who would later be awarded the Medal of Honor, elected to continue his strike as planned.

As the 16 B-24s approached their target, which was obscured by heavy black smoke, they came under concentrated small-arms and antiaircraft fire from all sides. Before "bombs away," Sad Sack II, piloted by 1st Lt. Henry Lasco, took many hits. Left waist gunner SSgt. Charles DeCrevel was shot through the thigh. Tail gunner Sgt. Thomas Wood was killed. The No. 2 engine was knocked out, and its propeller would not feather. It seemed to the crew impossible for any plane to survive a bomb run through the maelstrom of smoke, fire, and exploding delayed-action bombs that engulfed the target. This was it.

At bombs away, navigator 2d Lt. Harry Stenborn's chest was torn open by an 88-mm shell. He managed to crawl along the bomb bay catwalk to the rear of the aircraft, where he collapsed and died. Top turret gunner TSgt. Leonard Raspotnik and radio operator SSgt. Joseph Spivey were hit. Neither survived. Lieutenant Lasco knew then that they could not make it back to North Africa. He decided to head for Turkey.

By this time, Sad Sack II was at treetop level, vibrating badly, and barely able to remain airborne. Several Bf-109s attacked the critically damaged bomber. The wounded Sergeant DeCrevel continued to fire at the enemy fighters, downing one, while ammunition boxes exploded around him. He was wounded by more shell fragments. SSgt. Albert Shaffer, the right waist gunner, kept shooting at the fighters, though one of his legs had been almost severed by enemy fire.

The bomber was down to about 50 feet with one wing low when a Bf-109, coming in level at 10 o'clock, shot the pilot through the face, stunning and temporarily blinding him. Copilot 2d Lt. Joseph Kill leveled the wings just before Sad Sack II bellied into a corn field. Bombardier 2d Lt. Dale Scriven was killed in the crash; both of Lieutenant Kill's legs were broken, and one of his ankles was dislocated.

Lieutenant Lasco was pinned in his seat by a harness that would not release. He finally managed to free himself, remove the tangle of wires around Lieutenant Kill's legs, and drag him out of the burning wreckage through a hole in the fuselage. Still dazed, Lasco staggered off to look for help. While he was gone, Romanian peasants stole Lieutenant Kill's watch and ring, beat him, and left him for dead.

Sergeant DeCrevel fought his way out of a plane he later described as "a pile of burning junk." Then he remembered that Sergeant Shaffer was still inside, immobilized with only one functioning leg. DeCrevel went back and dragged Shaffer out of the wreckage. After stripping off his own smoldering clothing, DeCrevel also went for help.

Of Sad Sack II's nine crew members, all had been wounded and five killed. The four survivors--Lieutenants Lasco and Kill and Sergeants DeCrevel and Shaffer--became POWs in Romania until they were rescued by Fifteenth Air Force B-17s in late August 1944, after the Germans had retreated before advancing Soviet troops.

Aug. 1, 1943, will always be special in USAF history. It was a day of supreme heroism on a unique scale, when hundreds of men laid their lives on the line--and many lost--to complete their mission.

Thanks to Will Lundy, the 44th Bomb Group's historian, and to retired Col. William R. Cameron, who participated in the mission.
Published December 1994. For presentation on this web site, some Valor articles have been amended for accuracy.



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