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Originally Posted by jhor9 Jimbo
I was there when Doolittle was C.O. of the bomber force, I never met him
The Tuskeegee Airmen didn't get to our theatre until after I left. They were good, so I've been told.
The low level strike at Ploesti was in Aug 1943 flown by B24s from Libya
One group that went astray was late over the target, the group in front of them were supposed to be the last planes over because they had delayed action bombs, Unfortunately as the lost group went over the target, the bombs went off. The 24s lost close to 50% of their aircraft.
I went to Weiner Neustadt twice, after Ploesti it was one of most well defended targets, flak and fighters. In mid 1944 it was considered a twofer (2 missions) My 1st time to that target was a 14 hour flight in Nov 43, from Tunis. |
What's up with the 50 misssions. I thought you could get a cake walk job after 25, 30, and finally 35?
50% losses? How in the world did you guys maintain your morale?
The Tuskeegee airmen (for those that didn't know) were the fighting 99th who where all black pilots and flew (later) P-51Ds with bright red tails. Shamefully our military was segregated in WWII, but it was the culture of the times you know. The 99th pilots primarily were assigned bomber escort. They are reputed to have never lost a bomber to an enemy fighter. Their tactics were somewhat different in that they stayed tight in with the bombers and would not chase the Germans. The bomber pilots would specifically request the 99th for escort but most of them never even knew they were black.
This fighting technique developed by the 99th's commander was controversial in that the bomber crews loved them for obvious reasons, but then again they did not diminish the Luftwaffe fighting ability as they didn't engage the German fighters away from the bombers.