Allied Forces bomb Ploesti (1943)

PHOTOS: (1) 98th BG CO Col. John 'Killer' Kane in 'Hail Columbia' over Ploesti, 1 Aug. 1943. (2) 98th BG B-24Ds make their bomb run on the Astro Romana oil refinery at Ploesti. (3) 98th BG B-24D 'Sandman' emerges from flames after bombing a Ploesti oil refinery. (4) 343d BS, 98th BG B-24D 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' over Ploesti.

PHOTOS: (1) 376th BG B-24Ds over Ploesti, 1 Aug. 1943. (2) B-24D 'Teggie Ann' leads 376th BG Liberators to Ploesti. (3) 376th BG B-24Ds attack Ploesti's oilfields. The hazardous low-level mission resulted in the loss of 56 B-24Ds.

PHOTOS: (1) 389th BG B-24D 'Ole Kickapoo' on bomb run into Ploesti, 1 Aug. 1943. (2) 389th BG B-24Ds attack Ploesti. (3) A 389th BG B-24D departs Ploesti after dropping its bombs. (4) These 389th BG B-24Ds were the last ones to leave Ploesti after bombing the target. The plane with the burning engine was piloted by 1st Lt. "Pete" Hughes, who stayed with the aircraft to climb high enough for some of his crewmen to parachute to safety before it exploded. He was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor.

1st Lt. Walter Stewart was deputy lead for the 93d BG in his B-24D "Utah Man." His was the first B-24 to bomb Ploesti that day and the last to return to Benghazi. It was so badly shot up that the ground crew counted 365 holes in it and the plane had to be scrapped. Here, Stewart is debriefed by the group operations officer, Maj. Ramsey Potts, who returned two hours earlier. Stewart was awarded the DSC--although it didn't catch up to him until 1995 due to a clerical error.

Of the 177 B-24s that took off for the mission, 167 made it to the target area. 54 were shot down and 532 crewmen were lost, including 310 dead and 222 MIA. Every crewman who made the mission received a valor award. In addition to the five Medals of Honor already mentioned, 50 DSCs, 41 Silver Stars and 1,320 DFCs were awarded to crew members.