12/08/2025
Read this excellent post about the most famous bombing mission of WWII
This is a historical detail the mission.... by writer Stephen Sherman
on the history of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber of WWII.
18,188 planes were produced, entered service in 1940.
B-24D specs: top speed 303 MPH, 11 machine guns, max. bomb load 8,000 lbs.
The Mission....
By Stephen Sherman, Aug. 2002. Updated January 21, 2012.
August 1, 1943 - Over Ploesti, Romania, German-occupied Europe:
The Vagabond King, B-24 Liberator #42-40787, shook from the flak concussions, from bullets smashing its windows, and from the roaring rumbling of its four Pratt & Whitney R-1830 fourteen-cylinder radial engines. 1st Lt. John McCormick cursed as the gunner in the top turret opened up with his twin fifties. He was ruining the bomb run! And McCormick wanted to hit this target, the Steaua Romana oil refinery outside Ploesti. General Brereton had told them this raid could shorten the war by six months.
McCormick barked out orders to his crew, just as he had done so often in the past two weeks, when the 389th Bomb Group practiced for Operation "Tidal Wave" over the godforsaken Libyan desert outside Benghazi.
"Mosco, bomb bay doors open," to the bombardier, 1st Lt. Marvin Mosco.
"Start the camera, Van," to the radioman, enlisted man Martin Van Buren.
He steadied the stick as the big Liberator sped along the deck at 225 mile per hour, staying close to Hitler's Hearse, Captain R.C. Mooney's plane immediately ahead, so that Mooney's bombs, with 45 second delay fuses, didn't blow up in Vagabond King's nose. Down at chimney height, as black smoke from the bombs and sooty burning hydrocarbons boiled up all around them, suddenly "Bombs away!" and Vagabond jumped up, 4,000 pounds lighter. At that instant, the Hearse, grimly lived up to its name, as it took several direct hits, killing the Capt. Mooney. As more bullets tore into his own bomber, McCormick hoped those workers at Consolidated's San Diego plant had been paying attention when they built his plane. The Vagabond had taken a lot of punishment; one anti-aircraft shell had hit Van and he was a bloody mess.
Paul Miller, the gunner in the A-6 power tail turret, reported that their particular target, the boiler house, had been flattened and was burning fiercely. McCormick hugged the deck as he made his getaway, figuring that the German fighters couldn't dive on them down that low.
The Vagabond King headed south, desperate to get medical attention for the badly wounded Van. They flew over Turkey and touched down at Nicosia airfield, Cyprus as it was getting dark, fourteen hours after they had taken off. They were one of the lucky ones; of 178 B-24's that took off that morning, 54 didn't come back...
Remember Ploesti......
