Aircraft took off and joined the 98th Pyramiders formation without incident. Aircraft maintained position within the formation until about 400 miles from the base. The crew reported a fuel transfer failure and calculated only 800 miles of range left. The pilot aborted the mission and turned for home. Shortly afterward the plane began to lose altitude and then spun down out of control. 

The following personnel are listed as missing in action (MIA): 1LT Piper, 2LT Wise, 2LT Kovach, 2LT Dozier, SFC Reed, SGT Bode, SGT Wilkins, SGT Taylor, SGT Gardner

Signed:

M. C. McCarty
214st Sqdn. Adjutant

_____________________

Addendum to MACR, 05 August 1944

1LT Piper, 2LT Kovach, and SGT Gardner were recovered by a British submarine and returned to the base. They report having no contact with the other crewmembers after the plane crashed due to complete loss of the electrical system. They saw the chutes of at least 3 other members but never made contact with them once in the water. Air Sea Rescue has been advised to search the area more thoroughly for more survivors.

MAIL CARRIER (Post crew) (aborted mission due to mechanical failure)
Aircraft took off and joined the 98th Pyramiders formation without indicident. Everything started to go wrong straight after that. The #2 engine oil tank failed and the engine shut down. The engine was feathered before complete loss of oil pressure. The flight crew elected to abort the mission as they had not gone too far past the coast line. The bombs were jettisoned into the ocean and the plane safely returned to base.

STEEL RAIN II (BHaygood crew) (returned flyable)
We flew with the 389th Sky Scorpions. Good group of guys. We had the RED target. About 400 miles out from the base we lost all hydraulic power to the top turret but we elected to fly on toward the target with the rest of the group. Everything went well enough until we got into the target area. We stayed tight with the planes near us and that probably kept us alive.

We encountered many, many anti-aircraft positions protecting the target. Heavy flak positions were ahead of us and several lighter pieces off to our port. I remember at least 2 or more of each. My gunners engaged the targets in hopes of suppressing them and I feel they did a good job. We didn't get as much return flak as I expected. (Post mission recon reports a heavy and light anti-aircraft position destroyed by machine gun fire in this area.) We did take light damage in the port wing, waist compartment, and the flight deck. My waist gunner was lightly wounded from the shrapnel as well.

Enemy aircraft identified as IAR 80/81s attacked us from above. As we were so low to the ground their fire was ineffective but they did manage to knock out our intercom system at this point. But we did see 2-IAR80/81s crash into the ground after taking a pass at us so that was good enough for us as well. At this point our engineer shot one of them down as well to add to their trouble.

Our bomb run was on target and we started several fires I am sure. (Post mission recon reports 30% on target.) Now that was done, we had to get home somehow.

A couple more IAR 80/81s bothered us but nothing serious. We climbed to get back with a gaggle of planes above us for some extra protection. Several of the planes around us were leaking fuel, smoking, and damaged. I saw at least two not make it over the mountains.

After the intense action over the target area, the flight home was quiet enough until we got about 400 miles from home. We got jumped by the Luftwaffe probably from Italy. They were laying in wait for us to be sure. We got pounced by many airplanes and we expended a large number of bullets trying to protect ourselves. I did see two more B-24s go down at this time due to enemy action. My co-pilot has their tail numbers with him. We did manage to keep the worst off of us though as we sent home smoking 1-110, 2-109s, and a 190. That 110 is a probable.

Then the sky was quiet once again. We are glad to be home...

WEASEL GOD (EHaygood crew) (returned flyable)
We flew with the 44th Eight Balls. Weird bunch of fellas but good enough in a fight. We were assigned to WHITE V and we hoped for the best. The 214th had been broken up and pieced into several of the other groups and I hoped everyone would be ok. My tail gunner reported that the "Mail Carrier" dropped out of formation and returned toward home just after we took off. And then later in the mission my radio operator called to say that "Gemini" was turning back as well. We were down two planes in our poor 214th already. I was hoping this would not be an omen of things to come.

The target area was reached and after some confusion with our navigator and the group we saw what we thought was our target. We were one of the earlier ones into the area as nothing was hit yet. I remember thinking that may be a good thing, maybe they are asleep. I remember thinking shortly after that I was wrong.

Flak opened up everywhere! We had a full battery of heavy stuff to our right ringed with some lighter caliber stuff all around. You give me a map and I can show you where those positions are. They even had a freaking AA train shooting at us. My gunners unleashed fire in all directions and I do remember hearing my engineer report some solid hits on at least one AA position. (Post mission recon reports that 2 heavy flak positions were destroyed by machine gun fire in the expected area of this aircraft.) We were then pummeled. My tail gunner and waist gunner was wounded shortly thereafter. Our nose was almost blown off by a solid hit by a large caliber gun. Both the navigator and the bombardier were wounded at this point as well. My engineer fell out of the top turret bleeding from a nasty wound in the thigh. But my men stayed at their positions anyway and gave as good as they got!

We dropped our load on the first thing we saw that looked like our target and we hit it hard. (Post mission recon reports 30% on target.) They we started flying for us. A couple of 109s gave us some trouble getting out of the target area but my wounded engineer shot down one for their effort. They did hit us in the port wing a couple of times and shot away our ailerons on that side. But we kept going. I want to remember we dodged a barrage balloon right about then but maybe not. I remember being scared as hell for a moment. Anyway we climbed as best we could and after some effort and right before the mountains we managed to get with a group of other planes leaving the target area. They were as banged up as us.

Everything was quiet until about 400 miles from home base. They were waiting. 190s and 109s came down from up above and put more holes into us. We lost the #2 engine about that time and the radio. We did manage to down 1 of the 109s from the navigator's cheek position.

After we got thru that hornets nest we made it to Africa and the base. I was happy to get on the ground again.

SATAN'S LITTLE SISTER (DeFilippo crew) (returned flyable)
"Satan's Little Sister" was temporally attached to the 389th Bomb Group.

The crew was prepared for the flak waiting for us and managed to suppress most of the batteries. SFC Povsic particularly accurate and killed several members of a heavy flak gun. Lt Marlin was able to put the majority of our bombs on the primary target and there was a terrific explosion which caused minor damage to our port wing. Just after striking the target we saw two enemy fighters, but they were driven off by B-24s ahead of us. Later we were attacked by three Me109s. SFC Povsic destroyed one coming in from 12 o'clock high and Sgt Alfaro heavy damaged another. The remaining 109 scored hits on the pilots compartment, bomb bay and port wing. Most of the damage was superficial, except for the port wing. We were hit in the outboard fuel tank and saw some minor leakage but the leak sealed its' self. On the fighters next pass Sgt Riffle destroyed the fighter as he attempted to come in from 6 o'clock. Sgt Alfaro confirmed the Me109 was not able to pull up and crashed due to his low altitude. We were able to form up with the rest of the group and did not see any more fighters until Zone 4. Just when we thought it was safe we came under attack from four Fw190s. One was destroyed by SFC Povsic and another damaged by Sgt Alfaro. Our defensive fire must have unnerved them remaining fighters since their attacks were ineffective.

FLYING BUFFALO II (Loomis crew) (returned flyable)
We were ones of the last bombers to take off, as we were attached to the rookie group fresh from the states, the Sky Scorpions of the 389th.

We were assigned to attack the remote Steaua Romana refinery, located at Breaza Cimpina, about 18 miles NW of Ploesti, code name: Target RED.

Despite the poor visibility from the sand in the air tossed up from the leading planes, we took off without a problem. But already the mission had claimed its first casualty when one of the earlier bombers crashed on take off.

The second sign of things going bad came when we spotted smoke on the surface of the Adriatic. It looks like one of the bombers from one of the four group ahead of us had crashed.

Soon after the right turn at the island of Corfu, more things were going wrong. A wall of clouds stood in our way in front of the mountains we had to cross. The leader of the 44th elected to perform a weather-penetration maneuver instead of flying straight in. Although safer, this would cost the groups time arriving over the targets, and give the enemy more time to prepare their defenses.

Coming out of the mountains, we followed the leading 44th & 98th groups until the town of Pitesti where they separated while the we continued north by northeast towards our target.

As we made our attack run, smoke and flames erupted all around us that was caused from the bombs from the leading planes. It felt like we were flying into Dante's Inferno itself. While heavy flak exploded all around us, Sgt. West manning the port waist managed to suppress one of the batteries but the BUFFALO took hits to both wings. Then 3 Romanian IAP 80/81s attacked which shattered the cockpit windows and knocked out the tail guns.

Considering what we went through, we came out of that hell in pretty good condition and Lt. Stackpole dropped our bombs on target as briefed. Flak wasn't as accurate as before as we sped out there like a bat out of Hell.

After making the 60 degree turn at Floresti, five Romanian ME-109s attacked us that knocked out the radio and the bomb controls and creating new holes in the bomb bays, waist, and flight deck sections.

Leaving Breaza Cimpina and Ploesti burning in the distance, two Romanian fighters (1 IAP 80/81 & 1 ME-109) followed us as we made our escape. This attack managed to knock out the starboard cheek gun.

We crossed the Transylvanian Alps again, this time alone, but was soon joined up with another straggler from the 389th. As we made our way home, more stragglers joined up with us until we had our own composite squadron of 6 aircraft. They all belonged to the other groups and I didn't see any of our guys.

We thought we were home free when we came under heavy attack in the middle of the Ionian Sea. The first wave consisted of 4 ME-109s and this attacked knocked out the flaps and ailerons on the port wing, and wounded both Sgts. West and Crawford, the tail gunner. The second wave consisted of 3 FW-109s and they wounded Sgt. Crawford again and knocked out the starboard elevator, shot up the #3 engine (which kept on spinning), holed the flight deck, nose, bomb bay and port wing.

After these attackers disappeared, we encountered no further enemy fighters the remaining portion of our trip back to Benghazi, almost 14 hours after we had taken off. The Docs told me the wounds Sgts. West and Crawford received were not life threatening and both men were expected to recover and return to duty. As for the FLYING BUFFALO II, it wasn't as shot up as some other the other planes that returned (181 damage pts.) and the Old Girl will fly again.
Capt. Rick Loomis, 207th BS, 200th BG (H)

BATTLEWAGON (Hughes crew) (returned flyable)
Battlewagon flew with an angel on her wings this mission. A last second flak burst messed up the bombardiers aim and we flat outmissed the
target. Tail got a 190 on the way home, and waist and nose each got a piece of a 109 on the trip. The landing was uneventful.

HARRIET'S CHARIOT (Klippert crew) (returned flyable)
We flew with the 44BG. Our target was something called a ‘cracking plant’, designated White V.

I don’t know about the other guy’s, but I couldn’t sleep very well. A thousand things were going through my mind-could we find the target flying low and fast? Would we be able to shoot down the flak gunners-what if they were ready for us?

We took off into a clear sky and headed across the MED. The 44th was flying as the 4th group in the air formation. The flight inbound was actually kind of boring-we drank bad coffee from a thermos and choked down a couple of spam sandwiches. When we got over the mountains in Albania, the plan began to come apart. We hit clouds over the mountains, and by the time we got through, the two leading groups were nowhere in sight.

We flew down the other side of the mountains and went low-less than 200 feet. At the turning point we slipped into attack formation-flying in waves instead of a combat box. We were in the 3rd wave going across the target. Up ahead black smoke billowed across the city and then we flew into some terrible flak. As we flew towards the target every tree, bush, haystack and building seemed to have a flak gun in or on it. Fiery golf balls raced toward us-I didn’t think till later that between every tracer round there were 3 or 4 ‘slugs” that we couldn’t see!! Kurt and I were both on the controls and we went even lower to avoid the guns as our gunners began to hose down everything they could see. Everybody was shooting at something and I didn’t see how we were going to make it. The prop wash of the planes in front of us was bad, but we held our place in the air- now we were really low, only about 50 feet or so. We were so low that our waist gunners were shooting UP into flak guns! Off to the left a flak gun got onto us, but their aim was high-a rope of tracers passed so close overhead that John said he could reach out and grab them. He fired back a long burst that sent the crews running for cover and silenced the gun long enough for us to get by. Paul Hardt hosed down some flak gunners on a quad 20mm mount and probably kept us from being shot down. In quick succession we took hits in both wings and the tail got shot up-Dan staggered back into the waist and collapsed when an 88 burst just behind us-he was out the fight and badly hurt.

The #1 engine was hit by something and began to run away. Kurt yelled for me to feather it and I did-thankfully, otherwise we would have had to crash land the plane-something I didn’t relish. I didn’t think we were going make it to the target-the plane next to us flipped over into the ground, and every plane in the squadron was hit by something. I saw a plane in the wave ahead of us take 4 hits from flak, stall, and crash into the edge of the target.

Sometime during the approach we got hit by what I think were Rumanian fighters-I didn’t recognize the type. ( I later found out they were IAR 81B’s) There were two of them and these guys had guts-they made head on high attacks right through their own flak.

John dropped the first, and the second pulled up after giving us a long burst that caused some slight damage. I don’t think he came around again-he probably wanted out of that flak as much as we did. Despite the flak we hit the cracking plant. We climbed just enough to clear a row of trees and drop back down under 50ft when Scott yelled “I got it-target in sight! Bomb doors open!” All around us the air was filled with smoke, tracers, explosions and burning B-24s. Flak hit us in the starboard wing just before the release point, lurching the plane over onto its port wing. We corrected just in time! Scott yelled “Bombs away!”, and our 4 thousand pounders skipped into the buildings just ahead of us!! Fortunately, nothing went off until after we were over it.

Staying low, we poured on the power and flew over the city, shooting it out with more flak gunners-John shot a gun crew off a flak tower, Paul jammed his gun, and a 37mm off to port put a shell into us that knocked out the intercom-something we didn’t realize for a few minutes. Those few minutes almost cost us our lives. We reached the rally point but nobody was rallying! B24s were all around us in varying states-those that were able were pouring on the power. We saw an ME109 rake a 24 and it went down into a field and exploded. We saw another crash land into a field and the crew pile out and begin running. Then we were out of the flak belt, but not out of trouble-Several Me109,s lined up on us. John again dropped the lead bandit, and the others made an attempt to dive on us. We were hugging the ground and they really didn’t get good shots at us-but without an intercom we really sweated out those attacks. Just after that we formed up with other planes-over the next 30 minutes we gradually formed a loose formation with about 7 other cripples from various groups and be began the long flight home.We hopped over the mountains OK and saw other small formations-we gradually formed a group of about 11 planes. Somehow or another we ended up in front. We throttled back to make sure that we could all stay together, and I’m glad we did.

We were about halfway over the Med when the fighters came out of nowhere and hit us hard. They hit us several times-doing mostly superficial damage to the plane, but they killed Steve Michaels in the nose and wounded Scott back in the waist. Scott had gone back to man the waist guns, while Paul took over Dan’s guns. The captain wanted Dave to stay on the radio and send out maydays in case anybody went down over the sea. So Steve was on the nose guns and got killed by an ME109 making a head on pass. John got his wingman-but it somehow doesn’t even up the score. Back in the waist Scott got pinged by the same guy that killed Steve. Dave went back to check on Scott and Dan, and saw the fuel pouring out of the right wing. John franticly worked the fuel shutoff and transfer valves, but somewhere our fuel system had taken a big hit.

How we didn’t catch fire and blow up I’ll never know. We were losing fuel at a fast rate, but not fast enough to kill us. We landed at Benghazi with about 20 minutes of gas left. John shot off the red flares during our approach and an ambulance met us as we rolled to a stop. Dan was hurt all over-later we found he had over 10 shrapnel wounds. Paul and Dave had done first aid during the flight and saved his life. He is on his way home even as I write this.

During the debriefing we all were in an exhausted state-almost catatonic. We had been in the air for over 11 hours. There were over 50 holes in the ship and we lost 2 men.

SUPPER TIME? (Gordon crew) (returned flyable)
We took off with our engines sounding rough and joined up with the rest of the 98th. While over the Sea, our engineer reported that there was a total failure on #4. With regret we jettisoned and returned to base wondering who we would be welcoming back home.
1st Lt. Gordon

TERRI G II (Gerber crew) (returned flyable although heavily damaged)
Didn't think we were ever gonna get off the ground. Terri G II seemed to not want to leave terra firma. but we got airborne after lots of prayers and effort and formed up with the rest of the 98th.

About the time we crossed Med. Our engineer called out that the power on his turret had quit. We are expecting to find sand in the mechanism. We didn’t know it at the time but sand had also screwed up our bomb bay doors.

We hit the IP fine and the bomb run began. The flak was thick enough to walk on. As we got closer our gunners were firing at the flak gunners. We were looking right down the throats of those guns. Andrew managed to silence the one battery that was dead ahead, his twin fifties mowing the gunners down. Max managed to silence one battery from the waist.

The remaining batteries bounced us around pretty good. Our port wing flap picked up a few holes as did our starboard aileron. A few fragments went through our waist section and one found its way into Chris' left hand. He stared at it for a moment yelled over the intercom but he kept his hands on the controls and kept calling out instrument readings. It wasn’t until after the run that he took the time to pull it out and dress it. Doc says he’ll be fine by the next mission. After the flak the fighters hit. Just one wave but 4 ­ 109’s

Max winged one but it pressed in anyways from 9 high. It put a hole or two in our Starboard wing and hit Barry in the shoulder. He bled real bad and doc thinks he’s gonna lose the arm. In any case he’s stateside bound. That 109 pulled up and away just in time to miss the ground.

Two of the others put a few holes here and there in our fuselage and starboard wing, and holed our number 1 engine. We watched the gauges but nothing ever developed. They didn’t come back.

One 109 holed us and came back twice more. Our guys couldn’t hit it for beans. On his first successive pass he put a hole in my windshield, nicked up our control cables and whacked the port rudder.

When he came back he holed our nose and put holes in our port wing flap.

White four loomed ahead of us and we figure we put about 80% of our bombs right on there!!! We didn’t expect it to bomb us back!!!! The guys in the waist and tail reported debris flying through the floor and walls!!!

Some how after the run the flak missed us though Andrew managed to kill another gun crew at 12 o’clock.

As we pulled away from Ploesti two more 109’s attacked. One missed and one put a few more holes in us and nicked Williams in the right thigh. On his way back he flew into Andrew’s guns and he shredded his wing sending it into the ground.

We flew our winged Swiss cheese back to base on fumes and managed to land intact.
Submitted
1Lt Gerber

BOBBI JO'S BOYS (Poulos crew) (returned flyable)
We were assigned to the 376th our primary target was White I. But we never saw it up close and personal. Someone goofed. We made a wrong turn too soon at the IP and we were released for targets of opportunity. There was lots of open field but the crew and I decided we came all this way and we were going to hit something oil related. So we headed to Bucharest. But before we got near we were jumped by five planes that turned out to be AR 80/81’s one of them came zooming straight down on us got one hit in our tail section and continued on straight into the ground. That one hit put Robby’s tail guns out of action. Our Engineer managed to clip one and spoil; his aim. One from 6 high apparently didn’t know Robby was out of action because he shot from too far away missed and scooted for greener pastures.

Two from 9 level and 1030 level both managed to hit our instruments taking out rudder and aileron controls. As well as nailing our starboard rudder and punching a couple holes in our A/C.

As one came around for another pass Our Top Turret got the deflection right and sliced him in two. As the other came in from 12 level our spray fire scared him off.

Bucharest looked to have pretty good Flak protection. As we came near Jeff in the Turret managed to mow down a crew dead ahead of us and our Navigator managed to make another crew dive for cover. One battery did manage to score a hole in our starboard wing.

Then more fighters jumped us. Of all things a gaggle of 110 night fighters!!! Maybe they were on a training run. They seemed about as surprised as we were. Jeff managed to nick one up so it flew off smoking after it missed us and the other two missed with their passes.

Then things got tense as four 109’s came at us. Our Bombardier got a lucky hit and sent one down in flames. One from 9 level missed but ones from 3 and 9 high both scored hits on us, punching holes in our Starboard empennage, tailplane, starboard aileron and port wing inner fuel tank, thank goodness for self-sealing tanks.

The one from 3 we didn’t see again as it narrowly escaped ramming into the ground and when the one from 9 came around Jeff knocked it out of the sky.

Our bombardier pointed out a nice looking refinery building and decided to drop on it. We figure about 40% of our eggs went into it and Robby reported a few good explosions and that it was burning nicely. We saw some flak batteries on the way out and our Turret, nose and cheek guns shot them up pretty good.

We saw some planes then and joined up in the middle of the pack and things went smoothly till we were almost home. 3 109’s attacked us two missed but one took out our starboard flap and our starboard brakes. It came around for another pass but it missed.

Our landing was less than perfect but we made it down in one piece. Our ground crew tells us going to have to replace the port brakes as we sort of burned it out over compensating for the starboard one. We feel very blessed to have made it back with so little damage and no wounds. Mass will be very somber. We lost too many friends today.
Maj. Poulos.