Ploesti: The Great Ground-Air Battle of 1 August 1943 by James Dugan, Carroll Stewart Page A
Authors: James Dugan, Carroll Stewart
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total briefing occurred. Walter Stewart,
who was holding nightly Bible readings with his Mormon comrades, said:
"As the days went by and the enlisted crews learned where we were going,
men of various religions decided to meet with us -- not a tough decision
when the alternative was cleaning your guns again at night. The meetings
became an anxiously looked-for pleasure. We knew the low-level mission
was to be no breeze. To add to our little fears, one day some men came
to the base and installed tanks in the outer section of each wing and
even took out the right front bomb-bay shackles and installed a tank there.
Now it was the long low-level mission. They also fitted armor plate
on the flight deck for extra protection. Our little meetings became more
precious to us."
The airmen, who had had virtually no reading matter, were suddenly inundated
with British paperback books bearing such odd titles as Cage Birds and
The Tunnelers of Holzminden. All were about British escapes from German
prison camps in World War I.
Killer Kane announced to the Pyramiders, "All available crews will go on
the mission regardless of completion of all their combat tours." Scores of
his men had logged thirty missions and were due to be repatriated. Worried
about the morale of the group, Jacob Smart went to an armament shop where
Kane was fixing extra machine guns into the nose perspexes of his lead
ships. Kane let the Washington man wait a while before inquiring coldly,
"What can I do for you, Colonel?" Smart said, "Do you think your men
will follow you on the big one?" Kane exploded. "Look," he said, "if
you have any doubt about it, you have the authority to remove me here
and now!" Smart left. General Ent came to the shop and said to Kane,
"If nobody comes back, the results will be worth the cost." Both he and
Kane were scheduled to go to Ploesti.
Geerlings said, "Jake Smart was the unfailing sparkplug who kept
the operation from bogging down." A week before the mission a wave
of amoebic dysentery hit the bases and Smart was among those ordered
to bed. Geerlings dropped in to see Smart, "not daring to tell him how
badly he was needed at headquarters. There was a growing pessimism at all
levels." Fliers near Smart in the infirmary tent "rather hoped they would
not be restored to active duty for the raid," Geerlings noted. After
several days Smart staggered to his feet and drove around among the
groups, rebuilding confidence.
Trucks carted the relief models of the target around the bases for the air
crews to study. The smallest-scale relief -- the general target area --
portrayed the Alpine valleys above Ploesti with a vertical exaggeration of
five times. The fliers lingered gloomily over the model, wondering what
would happen to a tight, low formation tossing in the tricky drafts of
these deep defiles. "No amount of explanation that the actual ravines
were relatively shallow would satisfy them," said Geerlings. The men
examined the miniature of the entire refinery complex and models of
each refinery, which were in true scale, and glanced back at the steep
canyons. All would have to fly contours over them, and the Sky Scorpions
were to go farthest into them and attack down one of the draws to hit
Red Target at Câmpina. However, few combat men anticipated what could
endanger them atop the targets. Intelligence said nothing about fire
hazards to the Liberators from bombs and bullets ripping into storage
tanks of volatile fuels. One pilot predicted, "It'll be like looking
for a gas leak with a lighted match."
Four days before Tidal Wave the U.S.A.A.F. captured a Romanian pilot,
Lieutenant Nicolai Feodor, who said Ploesti "was the most heavily
defended target in Europe." There was no way to check this alarming
assertion. The mimeograph machines were rolling out Intelligence estimates
that "The heavy guns would be unable to direct accurate fire at
who was holding nightly Bible readings with his Mormon comrades, said:
"As the days went by and the enlisted crews learned where we were going,
men of various religions decided to meet with us -- not a tough decision
when the alternative was cleaning your guns again at night. The meetings
became an anxiously looked-for pleasure. We knew the low-level mission
was to be no breeze. To add to our little fears, one day some men came
to the base and installed tanks in the outer section of each wing and
even took out the right front bomb-bay shackles and installed a tank there.
Now it was the long low-level mission. They also fitted armor plate
on the flight deck for extra protection. Our little meetings became more
precious to us."
The airmen, who had had virtually no reading matter, were suddenly inundated
with British paperback books bearing such odd titles as Cage Birds and
The Tunnelers of Holzminden. All were about British escapes from German
prison camps in World War I.
Killer Kane announced to the Pyramiders, "All available crews will go on
the mission regardless of completion of all their combat tours." Scores of
his men had logged thirty missions and were due to be repatriated. Worried
about the morale of the group, Jacob Smart went to an armament shop where
Kane was fixing extra machine guns into the nose perspexes of his lead
ships. Kane let the Washington man wait a while before inquiring coldly,
"What can I do for you, Colonel?" Smart said, "Do you think your men
will follow you on the big one?" Kane exploded. "Look," he said, "if
you have any doubt about it, you have the authority to remove me here
and now!" Smart left. General Ent came to the shop and said to Kane,
"If nobody comes back, the results will be worth the cost." Both he and
Kane were scheduled to go to Ploesti.
Geerlings said, "Jake Smart was the unfailing sparkplug who kept
the operation from bogging down." A week before the mission a wave
of amoebic dysentery hit the bases and Smart was among those ordered
to bed. Geerlings dropped in to see Smart, "not daring to tell him how
badly he was needed at headquarters. There was a growing pessimism at all
levels." Fliers near Smart in the infirmary tent "rather hoped they would
not be restored to active duty for the raid," Geerlings noted. After
several days Smart staggered to his feet and drove around among the
groups, rebuilding confidence.
Trucks carted the relief models of the target around the bases for the air
crews to study. The smallest-scale relief -- the general target area --
portrayed the Alpine valleys above Ploesti with a vertical exaggeration of
five times. The fliers lingered gloomily over the model, wondering what
would happen to a tight, low formation tossing in the tricky drafts of
these deep defiles. "No amount of explanation that the actual ravines
were relatively shallow would satisfy them," said Geerlings. The men
examined the miniature of the entire refinery complex and models of
each refinery, which were in true scale, and glanced back at the steep
canyons. All would have to fly contours over them, and the Sky Scorpions
were to go farthest into them and attack down one of the draws to hit
Red Target at Câmpina. However, few combat men anticipated what could
endanger them atop the targets. Intelligence said nothing about fire
hazards to the Liberators from bombs and bullets ripping into storage
tanks of volatile fuels. One pilot predicted, "It'll be like looking
for a gas leak with a lighted match."
Four days before Tidal Wave the U.S.A.A.F. captured a Romanian pilot,
Lieutenant Nicolai Feodor, who said Ploesti "was the most heavily
defended target in Europe." There was no way to check this alarming
assertion. The mimeograph machines were rolling out Intelligence estimates
that "The heavy guns would be unable to direct accurate fire at
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