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

Dan here is a copy of a letter sent by Hughes co pilot back to his family in the US reffering to the Hughes aircraft being names OLE KICK KAPOO which I got today from a 389th Bmb Sqd historian mate of mine :


I thought this might interest you. There has been some discussion on whether or not the Hughes plane was named or not before the mission. In one book it was refered to as "Eager Eagle".


Thomas Hoff, the surviving tailgunner stated that they had not yet decided on a name. Here's another interesting twist. We just located a letter sent by my Uncle, Ronald Helder, who was Hughes co-pilot dated July 31st 1943 that was sent to my grandparents. It goes as follows Dear Folks: A few more fairly uneventful days have passed by. We have had few improvements in living conditions since my last letter - having finally finished the Officers Mess building and finished the floor of our tent Tomorrow (Sunday) will be a full day for us. The big shots around here say they are going to make us work on the Sabbath and really do humanity a good turn. Turn back your calenders and take a look at August 1st. We finally named our plane "Ole Kickapoo" because we couldnt agree on a name for it. We have four bombs painted on it to designate raids and for swaztikas to designate fighters shot down. Our crew is classified in the best three or our squadron - pretty nifty. We bought a chicken today and plan on having it for dinner tomorrow night. We really have fun swimming in the Mediterranean. This sea is like a crystal clear like [he meant lake] - even flying over it you can practically see the bottom at all times. No subs would hide for long in it. I'm getting a deep enough tan to pass as an Indian, but have my hair cut like a "Heinie," so I think I can fool anyone anyplace; all i have to do now is grow an English. Till next time Love, Ronald Take care everyone.....Brad Helder



Alex

The other fighter pilots are (from left): Adj. rez. av. Casian Teodorescu, Slt. av. Brezeanu, Lt. av. Flaviu Zamfirescu, and Adj. stag. rez. av. Tiberiu Vinca (on far right). Kneeling: Adj. stag. av. Alexandru Economu.

Cantacuzino, what's the source of the photo you posted?

Gen. Dénes

Interestingly, the date of his death is given as 4 Aug. 1944, not 1 Aug. 1944...

Gen. Dénes

Another unsolved mystery connected to Cpt. av. Marin Ghica is if he indeed shot down a B-24 or not (I believe he didn't, only shot at).

BTW, regarding the side view of Ghica's Bf 110, at this time I believe the Balkenkreuz on IV./NJG 6 airplanes still had the black cross in the centre, not only the four white corners.

Gen. Dénes

Yes Denes, thanks for the pilots indentification, but like i said only 2 of them took off on against Tidal Wave raid. Anyway the picture was taken at Otopeni airfield and the Bf-109 depicted is the other "white 1" of 53sq used in '44. ( the Photo is courtesy Dan Antoniu coll.)

Probably confusion was with burrial date. The stone was made after burrial.

Dan.

I know. All I wanted is to complete the picture and add names to the other faces, too to whom not familiar with these fine bunch of Rumanian fighter pilots.

The scan appears to be made of a photo printed in a publication, not after a classical photo print.

The reason I asked the source (beside forum's rules) is that I wanted to know where else was this photo published.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on January 18, 2005 05:19 pm

That particular photo has been published in several books so far. It is also in "Armata Romana 1941-45" by C. Scafes, H. Serbanescu & Co.

The womens ( one in black probably widow) from the nearby village looking with compassion to the tragic scene of the B-24 wrecks thinking about their husbands on russians front.

Maybe they were thinking about the countless Romanian civilians (women and children) killed by the B-24 bombers in Ploesti area.
In the previous 781 posts under this topic, nobody wrote even one word about the nightmare and inferno endured by the civilians of Ploesti, courtesy of the U.S.A.F. bombers, in 1943 and 1944.

This post has been edited by Florin on January 19, 2005 05:35 am

Ok Florin, i 'v got your point.
First of all in that particular pictures the people are farmers ( with little political knowledge). On that day ( 1 august '43) the target was oil refineries ( a military target). It was choose by 15th AF to be sunday to have minimum victims among the romanian workers in refineries. The purpose of the attack were not civilian people. Ofcourse In WWII from all theathers were thousands of civilians victims ( remember Guernica, Coventry,London,Hamburg ). I don't think that women allready know about the raid victims ( no TV or CNN ) when they saw the B-24 wreck. I thing the purpose for this thread was only to get informations from all sides about The Tidal Wave mission and not made a political and philosofic talk about the civil victims of the war. Personaly I am a pacifist and my opinion is that wars were invented only by crazy leaders.

Dan.

Ok, i rework a little bit the profile to match better Ghica plane.


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And a possible witness of Cpt.Ghica crash was Oblt. Hans Schopper.
Here is a fragment from the book " La chasse de jour allemande en Roumanie" of Jean-Louis Roba and Eric Mombeek. Sorry it's in french. Please anyone had time to translate in english?


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[QUOTE] And from the same book a picture with Fw.Albert Palm from 3/JG4 ( coincidence name with american pilot Palm) who was also credited with 1 B-24 shot down on Tidal wave.


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The reason is very simple. I have the picture on a small paper photo copy print from some years ago ( no computer in that days) from mentioned owner and i made (these days) scan after it at high res. I am not aware what other books published too. But also i don't like people who had in their collection original or copy of pictures made by pilots or people from those days and never mentioned evan if they know the genuine source of pictures and published in books only the collection owners. I think the people who made that pictures ( and not the owners) should be full credited.

Doesn't have the "SMP" stamp in the corner?