Ploesti: the Great Ground-Air Battle of 1 August 1943
“-- Walt Whitman, "Drum Taps," 1865 5 THE GREAT MISSION AIRBORNE During the summers in Cyrenaica the khamseen comes punctually in the afternoon, flooding dust across the coastal shelf. The Liberators used to stand in it like elephants bathing, while mechanics cleaned engines and bombardiers swaddled bombsights against the scouring disease that took a third of an airplane's life. On this Sunday morning, the first of August 1943, the dust storm came before dawn, roaring like no wind of natur...e. For forty miles along the Libyan bulge, 712 engines blew up earth upon which no rain had fallen for four months as 178 cruelly burdened B-24's queued up for take-off. Each plane carried at least 3,100 gallons of gasoline and an average load of 4,300 pounds of bombs, bullets and thermite sticks, exceeding the Liberator's maximum load allowance. The first, and possibly suicidal, problem of the flight to Romania was simply to get off the ground.
The first wave aircraft in the seven target forces had extra fixed nose guns; some had armored the flight deck, most had extra belts of fifty-caliber shells.MoreLess
The first wave aircraft in the seven target forces had extra fixed nose guns; some had armored the flight deck, most had extra belts of fifty-caliber shells.MoreLess
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