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

Dan and All here is a post I got today from my US Tidalwave friends

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Alex,

I just spent several minutes just beginning to go through all the
information you have posted on the Romanian ARR forum and I must
commend you for all the work you have done and continue to do. I did
see one small thing that could be fixed. Col. Walt Stewart's article
about receiving the DSC mentioned taking place "last" October. In
reality, the original article was published in the winter of 1995, so
the ceremony would have taken place in the fall of 1994. In the
meantime please check out the two links listed below. I had the
chance to meet and visit with Walt two different times in 2002 and
was thrilled at the experience. He's a great guy. I also was able to
acquire a copy of "Wing and a Prayer..The Saga of Utah Man". Please
keep up the good work. Roper flew "Exterminator" on the raid and was
lost in a midair collision on the way back. He and Stewart were best
friends.


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Hugh Rawlin Roper
Captain U.S. Air Force


To Mr. and Mrs. Abel M. Roper
Death:1 August 1943





Son of Mr. and Mrs. Abel M. Roper, and husband to Mrs. Addie West Roper, Captain Hugh Rawlin Roper graduated from Brigham Young University in 1937. After teaching high school for four years in Wellington, UT with his sister, he decided to join the Army Air Corps. He enlisted at Oxnard, CA, April 30, 1941 and went on to receive a commission at Mather Field, CA, December 12, 1941. At the Boeing School in Reno, NV, Capt. Roper received special bomber training that would later be essential to one of the key battles of World War II, the Ploesti Oil Raids. Capt. Roper was stationed in Louisiana, Florida, and New Hampshire before going overseas in early September 1942.

While at Barksdale Field, LA he requested to have a copilot from Utah and was given then lieutenant, Walter Stewart. They became best friends and later Lt. Stewart piloted his own plane, Utah Man. As a pilot of the B-24 Liberator, Lt. Roper was once credited with having destroyed a German Junker 88 bomber when six of them attacked his plane during antisubmarine patrol over the Bay of Biscay. One of the six was shot down into the sea by the guns of the B-24 and another trailed home with smoke after the failed attack.

August 1, 1943, Captain Roper entered what came to be the most highly decorated military mission in US history. While stationed at the base in Benghazi, Africa Capt. Roper was selected to fly in mission Tidal Wave, an air strike against the oil fields in Ploesti, Romania. One of the few who made his way back from what had been a tragic but successful victory, Capt. Roper was killed when another B-24 piloted by a young lieutenant on his first mission, crashed into Capt. Roper's own B-24. Capt. Roper had just completed his 25th and final mission and was on his way home from the war.

Capt. Roper was recipient of the Air Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star, and the Purple Heart.





Contact Information:



Written By: Kwan McComas Jr.

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 26, 2005 11:06 am

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Dan and All

Here are crew photos I got from a family member of the EXTERMINATOR of Capt Roper Hugh R who was lost during Ploesti withdrawal on a mid air collision ..the entire crews of the EXTERMINATOR and LET'ER RIP were lost. The pilot of LET'ER RIP who cuased the mid air was a newly unexperienced pilot on its first combat rolle mission.


Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 27, 2005 08:10 pm

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Alex as i understand the remains of the crew of Margie ( Lt.Gooden) were burried in Bolovani Cemetery Ploesti toghether with the rest of 168 unindentified airmen.
( You can sent the pictures with this cemetery to nephew of Sgt.George H. Kaylor)
The question is : were removed the remains after the war by U.S. authority from this cemetery ? I don't know who can give an answer to George.

Dan.

Dan here is the photo of the Exterminator ...courtesy of a family member of Capt Roper

Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 27, 2005 08:12 pm

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Wing and a Prayer

The story of, and a tribute to, the 1700 men who flew the famous low level raid on Ploesti August 1, 1943, as told by Walter Stewart, pilot of the B-24 'Utah Man'. The Allied assault against Hitler’s oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania is the most highly decorated military mission in American history. Spectacular footage! An Emmy Award Winning Documentary. Color and B&W, 58 minutes.
.....#00V8520 $24.95 My Webpage

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Walt Stewart, a native of Benjamin, Utah (left) with Dan Metcalf KO7R (right), February, 2001. Col. Stewart is 83 years old in this picture, taken beside his home, the house he was born in.

Walt is the great-nephew of John M. Browning, the famous gunmaker, and is a hero in his own right.

In WWII, as pilot of the B-24 "Utah Man" he was the leader of a crew of ten men on his plane. There were over 160 planes and 1600 men who conducted the surprise bombing raid on Hitler's oil fields in Ploesti, Romania on August 1, 1943.

Over 50 of these planes didn't return. Col. Stewart and his crew were the last of the raiders to land back in Benghazi, their home base, with all tanks empty and the plane shot up so badly that their maximum speed was about 125 MPH. This was his 31st mission (with only 25 being required in order to retire from bomber duty). He was belatedly awarded the Distinguished Service Cross a few years ago for his part in the mission (it had originally been wrongly awarded to someone else, due to a paperwork mix-up).

His story is available on the video "Wing and a Prayer, the Saga of Utah Man" for $20 plus postage. Anyone interested contact KO7R at 801-768-9144, or email ko7r@juno.com. KO7R gets no profit. Col. Stewart is still very active, does farming and speaks to scout troops, youth groups, and church meetings, etc. on a regular basis.



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Alex, there are no words to express the gratitude for the work you have been doing regarding the heroic airmen of the TW. My dad flew the TROUBLE and returned safely back to Lybia. You make all the past once again alive....and thats why I gonna say on behalf of all TW veterans who are still alive , their families and anyone who cares about Army Air Corps vers of WWII we ALL SALUTE YOU !!!

Ted Rowlland

Thanks Ted and god bless ya and your brave dad, on the name of the entire ARR forum we all welcome you ! Please follow the next posts, you will be surprised..also help us with any photos of the TW you may have

Best Regards
Alex

Here is the photos of Walt Stewart the pilot of the UTAH MAN with the UTAH MAN B-24 model awarded to him

Al

Courtesy : Col.Walt Stewart

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Here's again Col Walt Stewart holding the DFSC awarded to him for the Ploesti Aug 1, 1943 mission

Alex

Courtesy : Col Walt Stewart

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 26, 2005 12:10 pm

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Alex asked me to share my Ploesti diorama here with you so I will give that a try. Here is an overview of the whole diorama, with some close up pictures in the following posts.

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I was trying to recreate the scene as it happened in my imagination on that fateful August morning. I would like to thank Victor again for providing me with the inspiration for the pilot. I am the kind of modeler that above all cherishes knowledge of the pilot of his subject aircraft, everything else follows from that. Victor was able to supply that knowledge and a short story of the interception mission flown that morning by Carole Anastasecu.

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I read many times about those famous "German 88's" manned by Luftwaffe personnel defending the oilfields so I decided to work that into my diorama. The kit is an old Bandai 1/48th, and the figures are poor quality pieces from that set. I decided to cover up the 88 with hops of hay, as I read somewhere that that is how they were camouflaged. Once the bombers arrived they took off the hops and opended up "point blank"

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and here is the 88 alrady uncovered...

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A little more of the aircraft. It is a poor quality LTD kit in 1/48th scale. I rescribed the wing panels to give it the "81" configuration with the heavy armament as suggested by Victor. The makings are those of Carole Anastasecu from that fateful morning of August 1st. I read that once the formation of the bombers was discovered by German Radar already over Greeece the Ploesti defenders had plenty of notice and were able to be prepared. For that reason I staged the two pilots talking to the two artillerymen while the plane is being refuelled. At the time I did not have very good information about Romanian Air Force pilot uniforms so I kind of guessed at brown...how much was I off?

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