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

I will add to your list "Sad SackII" shot down near Butimanu village.
From rom. archiv one member was indentified (Joseph Spivey) and burried in Luceanca cemetery near Butimanu village on 1 august '43.
Below Lt. Barladeanu near the wreck of "Sad Sack II". On the back of the original picture it's written by Barladeanu - " My second victory 1 B-24 crashed near Butimanu village 1 august '43 ".


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For "Winger Dinger" are some mistery to be solved. It is said that the color of the plane was orange and because of this was in sight of AA guns and fighters before the others. From Grigorescu book it crashed near Barcanesti village south of Ploesti. But i found in rom. archiv that one of the KIA (Gotts Howard) member of Winger Dinger was collected near Poenarii Burchii village and burried in Bolovani Cemetery from Ploesti.
Below it is the wreck of B-24 ( Winger-Dinger??) crashed Poenarii Burchii village near the locust tree forest . Lt. Barladeanu wrote on the back of the picture -" The first victory B-24 near Poiana Burchii village, 1 august '43."


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Alex, I need also your help. One B-24 crashed near Cocioc village ( Ilfov area). One crew member was indentified but the name was coded by romanian police ( poor english knowledge) as SPARTMA R.L.L. ( could be Spartha or anything else). Maybe you can get close to a name of an airman lost on tidal Wave. All the KIA from this B-24 were burried in Cocioc cemetery on 1 august '43.

Dan I am going to look into , lets see what I find available, btw the new book called PLOESTI THROUGH THE LENS contains a lot of photos of the crash locations and details and as soon as I get it I will scan some details to you

Best Regards
Alex

Dan

Regarding the SPARTMA airman you mentioned...it could be the TSgt Raspotninck L. Leonard, Top Turret Gunner (R.L.L.) of the SAD SACK II.Also update your aircraft roaster ...the aircraft number 42-40991......listed on your and 389bmb roaster as nameless was KATE SMITH lost on the refinieries of Ploesti ,only one managed to get out.

Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 13, 2005 10:44 pm

All photos posted previously on the destruction refineries in Roumania as well the one bellow courtesy of William Filli a Ploesti TIDALWAVE veteran and 2nd Air Division Archives.

Al

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bellow the photo of the Women prison which was impacted by JOSE CARIOCA 1st Lt Sampolis who kept his ill fated airplane on formation until control loss

Courtesy Balck Sunday/M.Hill

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Other pictures from Benghazi after the Tidal Wave.

Tail gunner Sgt. Dawley from "Lucky" checking his guns. The zwastica is his Bf-109 claim in Tidal Wave mission.


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Waist gunner Sgt. Andy Miller from" Lucky "prepare his gun for the next mission.


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And the pilot Kendall in the cockpit of B-24 "Lucky" .


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And "Lucky" crew checking the damage after Tidal Wave mission.


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And a color picture taken at Benghazi with unknown B-24 "Home Sick Susie "
( could be one of unameless B-24 in Tidal Wave mission ?). One crew nickname written on it " Cat Bomb Thomas ".



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And below Col.Nero ( the B-24 king wizzards repair team) in his jeep together with reporter Dmitri who took the pictures at Benghazi after the TidalWave mission.



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here's a document which speaks for itself...Ha ! It was sent to a family member of one of the crews of JOSE CARIOCA in 1999 ......Dan you got to check the story about the Jewish cemitary as a burial site for Christian US Airmen , that sounds rather exotic and bizare to me....Mr Gonzales has sent me this docment

Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 14, 2005 11:12 am

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Here's the email I received today from Bob Sternfels the Pilot in Command of the SANDMAN :


Alex,

My book is THE True Story of the August 1st,1943 Ploesti Mission. After
reading most all the Ploesti books,watching videos and reading many
articles about Ploesti, most all by people who were not on the mission and are
merely repeating what other authors wrote, I decided to tell the truth about
what happened on the Ploesti Low Level. I knew the Air Force planner, now
General Jake Smart and the man who led all the 178 B24s, now General
K.K. Compton.(Compton passed away last year). Also, I was the pilot of the
plane you see in the photo of a B24 over a refinery at Ploesti. My plane was
called The Sandman. My book took three years of work because I wanted
to research every statement we made in the book so there is no doubt that
we have the true facts about the mission. It does not tell stories of
crews and their histories as many Ploesti books do. My book gives you
details of what happened on the mission as told to me by the key crews. For
instant, the lead navigator in Compton's plane is quoted on how the wrong turn
developed. But most starling, General Compton told me in numerous
interviews that He was to blame for the wrong turn. I have for years felt he was
doing the navigation toward the approach to Ploesti so talking with him he
frankly admitted he alone told his co-pilot Capt. Red Thompson to make
the turn. As you know this completely ruined the mission concept and as a
result it cost many lives for the other groups. Compton's group
suffered the least amount of losses and in fact he actually never hit a
refinery. This is fact. My book, Burning Hitler's Black Gold is only available from me at a cost of $25.00 with postage. You will finally know the truth about the flight
on August 1, 1943. We even have a video in DVD or VHS. Both video and
book is but $51.45.

Bob Sternfels
395 Pine Crest Dr., Laguna Beach, Ca.