PLOESTI /OTOPENI/BOUCHAREST BOMBING PHOTOS, Missing Aircraft & Unidentified Crews

Can anyone identify the aircraft which belly landed near Boucharest ?

Al

This post has been edited by alexkdl on December 10, 2004 05:35 pm

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The crew of the TERMITE CHASER may have gone MIA in Roumania in 1944

This post has been edited by alexkdl on December 10, 2004 05:27 pm

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Alex these are excelent photos !! Thank you so much for posting.About photo number 3, I think the target was Baneasa/Otopeni airfield - look here:



and compare with this one:



It seems same objective attacked from 180 degrees then the previous.Inm the frst photo in my post you can see Baneasa, in the 2nd you see Otopeni.

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on December 10, 2004 10:02 pm

Many thanks for your comment is a pleasure and honour to be a member on this forum and get your comments

Thank you

Alex

Alex my gran dad was with the 15h AF a pilot and later retired as Col.at USAF at Vandeberg AFB in Cali . I noticed all your posts about Ploesti and Boucharest bombings and followed your other messages. You have outstanding material,skills and ways to capture readers attention and great topics . I consider a previlege to become a member of this forum and read again your future messages. In the name of the families of the 98th Bmb group we all salute you sir.....GOD BLESS YOU and BLUE SKIES :

David Ferguson

Thanky for the share Alex, you gavet me study material for at lest a week!

Also I just noticed:



compare with this one:



you can see again Baneasa airfield in the center of the picture, and if you look straight up you will notice Otopeni airfield.

Ok, to better understand what I mean I edited a little those 3 photos:

Also:

this is Baneasa Airfield bombed





And this looks very much like Bucharest and Herastrau lake you can also see Pta. Aviatorilor (now called Pta Charles Degaulle :/ )



This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on December 11, 2004 12:29 am

Many thanks , excellent observations

I have found the very same photo on the page of the 461st Bomb group as an illustration for "Mission #73 - 31 July 1944 - Target: Bucharest".

Are you referring to the airfield located on the present-day Baneasa Airport? I doubt it is that one. Take a look at the photo below which has been for sale on eBay. The airfield there looks very much different from that in your photo.

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The attached photo is courtesy of Bruce and Daisy Johnson. This is the crew and plane, The Rover Boys. The pilot was 2nd Lt. Arthur David Morgan, Jr., O-697669. The aircraft was shot down over Ploesti oil refineries on 28 July 1944 and crash-landed in western Rumania. No injuries to crew from either flak or the landing. Crew were POWs until Rumania capitulated in September 1944. Lt. Morgan was back in the US in September 1944.

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Carol, thanks to your picture I was able to put some missing links together and here is what I got:






Now, by looking at the last 2 photos, we can clearly see Baneasa aifrield and the one I thought it is Baneasa: Baneasa is N-NW of the "hipodrom" (someone pls translate this) and the one I thought is Baneasa is SW of the "hipodrom".This also means the other airfield (not seen in the last 2 photos) which I thought was Otopeni, is another airfield.Can anyone id those 2 airfields that I mistakenly took as Baneasa and Otopeni ?

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on December 13, 2004 03:21 pm

This B-24 breaks apart over Boucharest or the outskirts by mid 1944 the starboard outboard side of the wing seems to be perforated at the airleron by AA fire or of an aircraft gun 20mm or similar shell , no survivors were found and I have no track record on the crew or aircraft.....can anyone help entangle the mistery? I tend to believe it was hit by a fighter aircraft as no AA explosions can be seen around the Liberators

Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on December 13, 2004 06:25 pm

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