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

Alex,
The 93rd attacked Columbia Aquila from the south. They
were on a northerly heading. From the map, I can see
that JOSE CARIOCA would have had to make a slight
right turn before crashing into the prison. Depending
on what heading they were flying, they either turned
right or continued straight and crashed into it. But
the 93rd approached Ploesti from the south. I can see
now that the prison was near Columbia Aquila.

Regards,
Joe Gonzales
San Antonio, Texas

Dan , do you know who's the ARR pilot shod down SAD SACK II ? or was it just the fluck ? If you have details , maybe you can post along with the ARR pilot photo

Alex

Alex, as far as I know the pilot credited with shooting down ( but allready heavily damaged ) was Lt. Barladeanu Ion. At the begin of the thread ( pag 11) I allready posted a picture with him and his IAR-80C. And also a picture with the wreck of Sad Sack II with Barladeanu nearby. On the back of the original picture Barladeanu wrote that it is his second victory a B-24 crashed near Contesti -Butimanu on 1 august '43.
Lt. Barladeanu was shot down in '44 by 15th Air Force Mustangs when he was returning (low fuel) to the Rosiori airfield with his wingman and were jumped from behind and both set on fire and crashed near "Rusii lui Asan" village.
Soon i will post his IAR 80 C nr 279 color profile for TW.

Dan.

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on February 01, 2005 01:46 pm

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And IAR 80C used on TW. His personal emblem "Tenebras" mafia king.


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And Lt. Barladeanu near the Sad Sack II wrecks.


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Thanks Dan, I understand that there is a positive ID that Burdaleanu brought down Hank Lascos B-24 , and the wrackages are those of the SAD SACK II.

Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on February 01, 2005 02:40 pm

For this positive ID we have the following elements :

1. Oficially Barladeanu victories from rom. archiv for 1 august '43 : one B-24 near Poiana Burchii and second B-24 near Butimanu.
2. The picture with Sad Sack II wreck with Barladeanu near. (original picture from Barladeanu family).
3. On the back of this original picture was written by Barladeanu himself: " My second victory a B-24 shot down near Butimanu, 1 august '43".
4. And the pilot ( Lasco) declaration that a fighter ( probably in a that shorts seconds wrong indentified) attacked them with his wings full of lights from the guns firing at Sad SackII. ( IAR 80C armed with 2 x 20mm "Ikaria" guns and 4 "Browning" machine guns, all in the wings.)
5. The crashed location of Sad Sack II is definetly near Butimanu.

Dan.

Dan and Fratello

Here is what Chris from the 389th Nmb Grp wrote to our TW group :


did some more checking through my photo collection and here is what I found in regards to seeing K-6 style cheek gun mounts in B-24D's. This could turn out to be another valuable tool in identifying B-24D's:

San Diego Built B-24D's 42-72876 Lucky Tiger - a post-Ploesti 389th BG replacement has the same K-6 style right side cheek as our Unknown 98/345 aircraft

42-72872 Flying Wolves - a post-Ploesti 93rd BG replacement has the same K-6 style right side cheek as our Unknown 98/345 aircraft

42-72871 Miss Liberty - post-Ploesti 389th BG replacements have the regular ball socket cheek gun on the left side - no right side pictures available

42-72866 Jackass Male - post-Ploesti 389th BG replacements have the regular ball socket cheek gun on the left side - no right side pictures available

42-72856 Nana - post-Ploesti 389th BG replacements have the regular ball socket cheek gun on the left side - no right side pictures available.

42-72743 - post-Ploesti 376th BG has regular ball socket cheek gun on the right & left side

42-72767 Flame McGoon - post-Ploesti 376th BG has regular ball socket cheek gun on the right side

42-41033 Cielito Lindo - post-Ploesti 98th BG has regular ball socket cheek gun on the right side

42-41004 Urgin Virgin - 389th/93rd BG Ploesti-era aircraft has regular ball socket cheek gun on the right side

42-40997 Screamin' Mimi - 389th BG Ploesti-era aircraft appears to have a regular ball socket cheek gun on the left side (I can't quite tell in my photo)

42-40807 (no name) - 389th BG Ploesti aircraft has regular ball socket cheek gun on the right side

Fort Worth Built B-24D's
42-63977 Los Angeles City Limits - a post-Ploesti 389th BG replacement has the same K-6 style right side cheek as our Unknown 98/345 aircraft

42-63975 Br-er Rabbit - a post-Ploesti 389th BG replacement has the regular ball socket cheek gun on the right side

42-63962 - Princess - a post-Ploesti 44th BG replacement has the regular ball socket cheek gun on the right side

42-63961 Zoomin Zombie - post-Ploesti 389th BG replacement has the regular ball socket cheek gun on the left side - no right side pictures available.

There certainly could be some modification center variances factors here, but it does appear that a pattern is there. K-6 type mounts in the cheek starting at about 42-72876 for San Diego built aircraft, and 42-63977 for Fort Worth built aircraft. Both of these lines would have been rolling off the factory floor in the range of August 10-16, 1943.

This is a helpful exercise for me since I have an unknown post-Ploesti 389th BG B-24D picture that I have been trying to ID for some time. The aircraft appears with the Bruce Bilby (Bilby is a Tidal Wave vet) crew and shows the left nose with a two-piece cheek window and a K-6 style cheek gun. This now leads me to the conclusion that this is a Fort Worth built B-24D, later than 42-63975. The only such aircraft I have on my list is 42-63980 Missouri Mauler.

Do the additional pictures you have showing the K-6 type mount fall into this pattern Blaine? I too was leaning towards the opinion that the Unknown 98/345 aircraft is desert pink. That leaves us with your question as to whether this picture is really of the Deeds crew, and if this aircraft was an early example of this mount (an anomaly or test case perhaps).

Thanks Dan the information rather very helpful

Alex

Here's the story of FLOSSIE FLIRT at Tidal Wave


HUGHES, CHARLES E. Pilot 1st Lt. Oakdale, Interned, returned to duty California
HUNN, SPENCER S. Co-pilot 1st Lt. Provo, returned to duty Utah
HAUSE, MAURICE E. N.2nd Lt. Cochranton, Interned, returned to duty Pennsylvania
GOODNOW, EDWARD W. B. 2nd Lt. Hartford, returned to duty Connecticut
LUCAS, HOWARD M. Eng. S/Sgt. Grand Saline, Interned, returned to duty Texas
SHANLEY, EDWARD R/O S/Sgt. New Haven,Interned, returned to duty Connecticut
NALIPA, STANLEY G. RWG S/Sgt. Poland,WIA interned, returned to duty Ohio
ALBINE, ROBERT L. LWG S/Sgt. Connellsville,WIA interned, returned to duty PA
BLAGG, SHELDON N. Tail Turret S/Sgt. Canton,Interned, returned to duty Ohio
Note: Three crewmembers were KIA on later missions: Lt. Goodnow (21 January 1944), S/Sgt. Albine (20 February 1944), and S/Sgt. Nalipa (7 July 1944).

1st Lt. Hughes’ aircraft, FLOSSIE FLIRT, managed to get through the hail of bullets and fire of Ploesti, leaving their two crashed sister ships behind them. They flew alongside some barracks from which soldiers ran out firing rifles, machine guns and pistols. The air gunners mowed them down in bloody windrows. FLOSSIE FLIRT was almost untouched or so it seemed, but when Hunn looked back in the fuselage, he was surprised how bright it was. Ground fire had turned it
into a sieve. 1st Lt. Hunn said, “We looked for a plane to tack onto. We picked one and he was shot down. We picked another and he was knocked down, too. A Roumanian IAR fighter got on our tail – tracers were zooming above and around the cockpit. Hughes and I were giving it all the left rudder we could in evasive action. Our tail gunner reported the attacker suddenly hit the ground like a ton of
bricks.” Hughes sailed into the sanctuary of a cloud and surveyed the situation: not enough fuel to reach Libya a large hole in the left stabilizer, a cable hanging by a thread, and both waist gunners, Stanley G. Nalipa and Robert L. Albine, were wounded. They headed for Turkey.

From 44th Bmb Sqd

Here is the story of SCRAPY II at TIDAL WAVE of the 66th SQUADRON:
66th Sq., #42-40375 G, Scrivner SCRAPPY II MACR #1646

Entire crew KIA
===========

SCRIVNER, THOMAS E. Pilot lst Lt. Carlsbad, KIA, buried Ardennes (D-10-38) New Mexico
ANDERSON, EVERETT P. Co-pilot lst Lt. Quincy, KIA Illinois
PHILLIPS, PHILIP P. Navigator lst Lt. Minneapolis,KIA Minnesota
YOUNG, ROBERT E. Bombardier 2nd Lt. Kansas City,KIA Missouri
COLL, WILLIAM F. Engineer T/Sgt. McAdoo,KIA Pennsylvania
SATTERFIELD, CHANNING N. R/O S/Sgt. Detroit,KIA Michigan
MICKEY, MARVIN R. RWG Sgt. Plainview, KIA Texas
SCHAPPERT, THOMAS F. LW Gunner Sgt. Wilkes-Barre,KIA Pennsylvania
MALONE, HUGH J. Tail Turret S/Sgt. Bronx, KIA New York

The fourth 66th aircraft lost was that piloted by Thomas E. Scrivner. K for King, commanded by Robert E. Miller, led the fourth wave into the dark and fiery target. On his wings were the aircraft of Lasco, as detailed above, and that of 1st Lt. Scrivner. But when Miller emerged from the target, neither of his wingmen were there. Several crews reported seeing this plane, along with two others, caught in a terrific explosion as they were approaching their target, and then not
seeing any of the three ships later. Thomas E. Scrivner’s ship came out in flames with the pilots fighting for a crash-landing. They sledded into a wheat field, but before the slide was spent, the ship exploded into a hundred foot sphere of flame. None of the men that the pilots had so valiantly struggled to save managed to
come out of it alive.

I came across this picture on the Web. As most of you know I am a big fan of "Killer" Kane and his Hail Columbia. It looks like it had a pretty illustrious career and was actually reclaimed by "Killer" shortly befrore Tidalwave. It was an older 41 model, and if you look real close at the picture I think you can just barely notice the circular cutouts in the lower glasshouse canopy. There is some sort of a rope/thing hanging from the opening. Perhaps that is where the guns were mounted? It is also good to see the right side of the fuselage with just the writing, we all know the logo from the left side.
It looks as if the plane actually had two logos, the "new" Hail Columbia on the left and the "old" Little-Chief Big Dog on the right.
I wonder it the pilots had the same superstition towards planes as the seamen do towards ships, once you change the name of a ship it is cursed and "bad luck"....perhaps that is why "Killer" kept the right side logo?
Any ideas how "Little- Chief Big Dog" may have looked?

Here is the original text from the site http://www.b24bestweb.com/hailcolumbia.htm

This aircraft originally served in the 344th BS, 98th BG as Hail Columbia. It was 344th CO John R. Kane's personal aircraft until Kane became 98th BG CO and turned it over to Herman Lewis, whose nickname was Big-Dog. Lewis changed the right side nose art to Little-Chief Big-Dog but retained Hail Columbia on the left side. Following the death of Lewis in another ship the airplane was transferred to the 343rd BS where the left side art work was changed to Grumpy in compliance with the Snow White Squadron directive. Wilfred Brann was the crew chief of Grumpy in the 343rd. Just prior to the low level Ploesti mission 98th Group CO John R. "Killer" Kane had the airplane returned to the 344th BS where a new form of the original Hail Columbia nose art quickly replaced Grumpy. The aircraft cracked up while landing at Cyprus following the low level Ploesti mission and was abandoned. Little- Chief Big-Dog probably remained on the ship throughout the left side name changes.



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May I answer my own question to save you guys the trouble?

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Thanks for posting these photos Arthur

Alex