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

Ok Alex, now I understand. The name Eager-Eagle probably was invented by Tidal Wave books authors. So the real name was OLE KICK KAPOO. Very interesting issue. I am waiting more details. ( but maybe before Tidal Wave Hughes flew the other B-24 named Kick Kapoo and wrote about it to his family in the letter ??)

Dan.

1. The letter was NOT written by Hughes. It was written by Hughes' Co-Pilot, Ronald L. Helder, to his parents on 31 Jul 1943.

2 - The name of the plane was "Ole Kickapoo," not "Ole Kick Kapoo."

3 - http://www.rajordan.com/pete/19430731-letter.html

Hmmm. They had DNA testing in 1943? Or even before 12 Apr 1950 when Lloyd Herbert Hughes was reburied in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery? I think not.

Source:
http://www.dnacenter.com/science-technolog...story-1980.html
Quote: "In the mid 1980s, a technique was developed called restriction fragment length polymorphism.... This technique became the first genetic test using DNA."

What did they use to identify the bodies?

Rajordan,

alexkdl was banned severakl years ago. You shouldn't bother too much with what he wrote.

I tried to look at the photos and I only see one photo,which according to Aircraft of WW2 Ecyclopedia ,edited by Paul Eden, it is called"During July,practice flights against a mock-up target in the Lybian desert were followed by a full-scale dress rehearsal involving 175 Liberators"

So this picture is not "Ploiesti Bombing".

Also according to the same Encyclopedia:
"Despite potent defences and heavy losses,the Ploiesti bombing inflicted heavy damage to the Romanian oil fields.A final tally showed that 179 Liberators took off,14 aborted and 165 attacked.Of the B-24 losses,33 were to flak and 10 to fighters.Some 56 Liberators were damaged.Eight aircraft recovered in Turkey.Of those B-24-s which returned to North Africa,99 recoverd at their bases and 15 landed elswhere.
Some 532 Amercan flyers died.
It will forever be debated how these bombings affected Germany's ability to fuel its combat forces,but no one doubted that the Third Reich was dealt a heavy blow by courageous American crews.Baker,Jerstad,Jhonson,Kane and pilot Second Lieutenant Lloyd H. Hughes were awarded the Medal of Honor,all but Johnson and Kane posthumously.It was the only raid in history for which five Medals of Honor were awarded".

This post has been edited by razu on January 27, 2009 02:10 am

razu, please take a look at the forum guidelines and try to post on topic in the future. If you cannot find a topic to incorporate the new posting, you can always create a new topic. However, keep in mind that topics without any informational value or with the possbility of creating flame wars, will be closed

Your off topic post was deleted.

razu,

If the admin has deleted your posts, it isn't a good idea to repost them. Take a look at the forum guidelines. You have a week off to do that and when you return try to show somwe respect to the rules you agreed with when joining the forum.

A sow on televizion years ago a reportaj about Tidal Wave Operation in wich it was sed that a group of veterans came bach in Romania and they find relics of bombers B-24 in the villages near Ploiesti wich they took back with them in US. It was an oragination wich recovers lost plane and ather artefacts from battlefields.
Did somebody known something about this thing ?
Did somebody find Bomber B-24 or otheres relics in Romania ?
Many thanks.

I was hoping to see if there was any more information and pictures that include 2nd Lt. Robert N. Vlachos who bailed out of his B-24, was injured and declared missing in action but who eventually returned home. He married Mary Jane Russell and had two sons.

We have most of his medals but few pictures. All of these flyers deserve our deepest gratitude for their service under the most difficult of circumstances.

J. Vlachos

Present condition for the cross erected on Corlatesti, near Ploiesti.



This post has been edited by miluch on June 27, 2010 06:38 pm

The crosses from the cemetery of AA gunners - 86 battery, 7-th regiment (prv. Paun Otet, prv. Tudor Gheauru, prv. Gh, Bizdarea ) dies on 1 august 1943 near Corlatesti.

1.



2.



3.

Hello Alexkdl--

I have been searching the internet for information about Hermann Weber, a pilot with JG 4. I came across your post from 5 years ago:

Luftwaffe side Leutnant Hermann Weber ME-109 on the TW

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 26, 2005 05:50 pm

Could you please tell me what book this illustration is from? Hermann was my father; sadly, both he and my mother passed away last December. Here's a link to an article written about him a few years ago: http://www.ipmslondon.ca/old%20site/ipmslo...ticles/id8.html

If you have any information for me, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for your time.

Bettina Weber

You have a mail.

Among the most interesting and unexpected pieces of information I heard was Hermann's assessment of Romanian fighter pilots. Having flown with and sometimes commanded Romanian pilots, he felt that they were of a higher quality than German pilot, especially in their flying skills, due to the fact that they were drawn from the nobility and that almost all of them already knew how to fly before they joined the Romanian air force.

Hello Bettina,

Thanks for the link with the nice story about your father and your mother lifes.
Interesting remark about romanian pilots.

As I remember a color profile of your father Bf 109 G yellow 5 "Whisky" was published in the french magazine "Batailles aeriennes"(july-august-september-2003-no.25, -edited by SARL LELA PRESSE-29 rue Paul Bert,62230 OUTREAU, France) written by Cristian Craciunoiu , Jean Louis Roba and Eric Mombeek.

Dan.

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on October 05, 2010 07:14 am

In case anyone might be interested, Walt Stewart returned to Utah, eventually retired from military service, and became a school teacher. He resides here today and I believe his wife is living as well. I was very blessed to be one of his high school students, some 38 years ago. A more wonderful, kind, and gentle man simply can't be found. I cannot imagine how he, and other survivors of WWII (from any country) were able to cope. We used to be able to trick Mr. Stewart into telling of some of his great flying experiences. Sometimes he would talk with great enthusiasm...sometimes he grew very somber, remembering many of the tragic things, of which he was required to play a part.