18.Edward Jablonski, Flying Fortress: The Illustrated Biography of the B-17s and the Men Who Flew Them (New York: Doubleday, 1965), 233.
19.Downey and Shepherd, Maximum Effort: A History of the 449th Bomb Group, Book IV (Panama City: Northfield, 2000), 27.
20.Donald Caldwell, Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich, 1942–45 (UK: Frontline Books, 2011), 209.
21.Robert F. Dorr, B-24 Liberator Units of the Fifteenth Air Force (UK: Osprey), 50.
22.Paul Hadley, “Grottaglie and Home”: A History of the 449th Bomb Group, Book III (Northfield: Collegiate Press, 1989), 136.
23.Ibid., 5.
24.“Chester Kock,” 301st Bombardment Group, http://www.301bg.com/Koch_Chester_K7433_301BG.cfm.
25.Ibid.
26.Caldwell, Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich, 1942–45 (UK: Frontline Books, 2011), 218.
27.W. F. Craven and J. L. Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. III: Europe—Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951) http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/III/AAF-III-2.html. Allied intelligence officers computed damage to factories by the visible destruction of roof area, arriving at fairly precise estimates.
28.“Missing in Action: The Female Work Force in Nazi Germany,” 123HelpMe.com, http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=33936.
29.Craven and Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 3: Europe: Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 42.
30.Ibid., 45.
31.Ibid., 43.
32.Reports of Luftwaffe losses in February are contradictory. Attrition might have exceeded 530 in the west, including night fighters. Alan J. Levine, The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945 (Westport: Praeger, 1992), 121.
33.“456th Bomb Group Explained,” Everything.Explained.at, http://everything.explained.at/456th_Bomb_Group/.
34.Sedgefield D. Hill, ed., “The Fight’n” 451st Bombardment Group (Paducah: Turner, 1990), 21.
35.Brian Hutchins, “General Nathan Twining and the Fifteenth Air Force in World War II,” Master’s thesis, University of North Texas, May 2008, 38, http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc6094/m1/1/high_res_d/thesis.pdf.
36.“Combat Chronology of the USAAF,” USAAF, http://www.usaaf.net/chron/index.htm.
37.Robert F. Dorr, B-24 Liberator Units of the Fifteenth Air Force (UK: Osprey, 2000), 43.
38.“The 765th at Toretta Field, Italy,” liberatorcrew.com, http://liberatorcrew.com/05_765th%20BS.htm.
39.459th Bomb Group.
40.Kenn C. Rust, Fifteenth Air Force Story (Temple City: Historical Aviation Album, 1976), 19.
41.“484th Bomb Group Association,” web.archive.org, http://web.archive.org/web/20041130191546/http://members.aol.com/bud484bg/about484.htm.
42.Ronald Schaffer, Wings of Judgement: American Bombing in World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 56.
CHAPTER THREE
1.Losses to fighters through May 1944: 378 of 700 bombers lost to all causes. Compiled from the AAF Statistical Digest, December 1945.
2.Herschel H. Green, Herky: The Memoirs of a Checkertail Ace (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1996), 78.
3.Taylor of the Fourteenth was age twenty-eight; Agan of the First and McNickle of the Fifty-second were twenty-nine. Today, with higher education requirements, most first-tour jet pilots are twenty-five-year-old first lieutenants.
4.Army Air Forces pay courtesy of Brett Stolle, USAF Museum, email May 2012.
5.Dennis C. Kucera, In a Now Forgotten Sky: The 31st Fighter Group in WW2 (Stratford: Flying Machines Press, 1997), 235.
6.Charles R. Shrader, Amicicide: The Problem of Friendly Fire in Modern War (Fort Leavenworth: U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute, 1982), 105.
7.George Loving, USAF (Ret.), email January 2012.
8.Barrie Davis emails, January 2012.
9.Fiedler email, March 2012.
10.Author interview, 1983. A search by the USAF records center at Maxwell Air Force Base produced no specific Fifteenth Air Force document regarding escort policy. Dr. Daniel Haulman email, February 2012.
11.Arthur C. Fielder email, January 2012.
12.AAF Combat Chronology, 1944.
13.Denes Bernad and Jiri Rajlich, et al., Slovakian and Bulgarian Aces of World War 2 (Oxford: Osprey, 2004); Bernad, Rumanian Aces of World War 2 (Oxford: Osprey, 2003), 74.
14.Hans Werner Neulen, In the Skies of Europe (Marlborough, England: Crowood Press, 2000), 167.
15.Tom Ivie and Paul Ludwig, Spitfires and Yellow Tail Mustangs: The 52nd Fighter Group in World War II (Crowborough, England: Hikoki, 2005), 103.
16.Irina Gigova, “Sofia Was Bombed? Bulgaria’s Forgotten War with the Allies.” History & Memory 23, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2011): 140.
17.Ronald Schaffer, Wings of Judgment: American Bombing in World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 56.
18.“Bombing Sofia,” Sofia Echo, http://sofiaecho.com/2011/01/21/1028646_bombing-sofia.
19.Vera Brittain, One Voice: Pacifist Writings from the Second World War (London: Continuum Books, 2005), 156; Neulen, In the Skies of Europe (Marlborough: Crowood Press, 1998), 168.
20.Schaffer, Wings of Judgment: American Bombing in World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 56.
21.Bernad, Rumanian Aces of World War 2 (Oxford: Osprey, 2003), 38.
22.“Flak Towers: Vienna Anti-Aircraft Towers,” wien.vienna.com, http://www.wien-vienna.com/flaktowers.php.
23.Alfred Asch, with Hugh R. Graff and Thomas A. Ramey, The Story of the Four Hundred and Fifty-fifth Bombardment Group (H) WWII: Flight of the Vulgar Vultures (Appleton, WI: Graphic Communications Center, 1991), 82.
24.Donald Caldwell, The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich (Barnsley, England: Greenhill Books, 2007), 212.
25.Jiri Rajlich et al., Slovakian and Bulgarian Aces of World War 2 (Oxford: Osprey, 2004), 53–54.
26.Bill L. Disbrow, On the Edge (Riverside: Winlock Galey, 2005), 100.
27.Caldwell, Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich, 1942–45 (Barnsley, England: Frontline Books, 2011), 320.
28.Daily summary, 14th Fighter Group, May 6–7, 1944.
29.Kucera, In a Now Forgotten Sky: The 31st Fighter Group in World War 2 (Stratford: Flying Machines Press, 1997), 393. Some enlisted men were overseas for three years.
30.Movie comments extracted from Fourteenth Fighter Group diary, May 1944.
31.Steve Blake and John Stanaway. Adorimini: (“Up and At ’Em!”): A History of the 82nd Fighter Group in World War II (Marceline: Walsworth, 1992), 177.
32.George G. Loving, Woodbine Red Leader: A P-51 Mustang Ace in the Mediterranean Theater (Novato: Presidio Press, 2003), 192.
33.Tom Ivie and Paul Ludwig, Spitfires and Yellow Tail Mustangs: The 52nd Fighter Group in World War II (Crowborough: Hikoki, 2005), 132.
34.Robert S. Capps, USAF (Ret.), Flying Colt: Liberator Pilot in Italy (Bloomington: Authorhouse, 2004), 408–9.
35.Sedgefield D. Hill, ed., “The Fight’n” 451st Bombardment Group (Paducah: Turner, 1990), 124.
36.Derived from Frank Olynyk, Stars and Bars: A Tribute to the American Fighter Ace 1923–73 (UK: Grub Street, 1995). Of the Fifteenth’s seventy-four aces, twenty-six had between three hundred and four hundred hours upon entering combat; five had slightly under three hundred, and the median was over five hundred.
37.Caldwell, The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich (Barnsley: Greenhill Books, 2007), 204.
38.Robert Forsyth, Luftwaffe Viermot Aces 1942–1945 (Oxford: Osprey, 2011), 13.
39.Steinhoff interview, 1990.
40.Boesch interview, October 1990.
41.Stigler interview, 1985.
42.Forsyth, Luftwaffe Viermot Aces 1942–1945 (Oxford: Osprey, 2011), 90.
43.Williamson Murray, Luftwaffe (Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation Publishing, 1985), 226–27.
CHAPTER FOUR
1.Pierre l’Espagnol de la Tramerye, The W
orld Struggle for Oil (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1924). Berenger was ambassador to the United States from 1926–27.
2.John G. Bunnell, Knockout Blow? The Army Air Force’s Operations against Ploesti and Balikpapan (Maxwell AFB: Air University, 2005), 30.
3.Walter J. Boyne, “Tidal Wave,” Air Force Magazine 90, no. 12 (December 2007) http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2007/December%202007/1207wave.aspx.
4.Bunnell, Knockout Blow? The Army Air Force’s Operations Against Ploesti and Balikpapan (Maxwell AFB: Air University, 2005), 30.
5.Robert S. Ehlers Jr., Targeting the Third Reich (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2009), 253.
6.Jay Stout, Fortress Ploesti: The Campaign to Destroy Hitler’s Oil (Darby: Casemate, 2003), 100.
7.Army Air Forces Evaluation Board, Report, Vol. VI: Ploesti (Mediterranean Theater of Operations, December 15, 1944), 12, 25, 81, 83.
8.“S2 Reports for April 1944,” 450th Bomb Group Memorial Association, http://www.450thbg.com/real/s2/1944/april.shtml#Top.
9.Ibid.
10.“S-2 Narrative Report,” 450th Bomb Group Memorial Association, http://www.450thbg.com/real/s2/1944/april/5April.shtml.
11.Martin Bowman, The B-24 Liberator 1939–1945 (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1979), 56.
12.Neil H. Raiford, Shadow: A Cottontail Bomber Crew in World War II (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004), 140. Note: the AAF Combat Chronology states that the first Fifteenth Air Force pathfinder mission was flown July 9 but that referred to the first use at Ploesti.
13.Dennis Kucera, In a Now Forgotten Sky: The 31st Fighter Group in World War 2 (Stratford: Flying Machines Press, 1997), 225.
14.Army Air Forces Evaluation Board, Report, Volume VI: Ploesti (Mediterranean Theater of Operations, December 15, 1944), 56.
15.Charles Richards, The Second Was First (Bend: Maverick, 1999), 266.
16.Robert S. Capps, Flying Colt: Liberator Pilot in Italy (Bloomington: Authorhouse, 1997), 282.
17.Ibid.
18.Army Air Forces. The Air Battle of Ploesti (n.p., 1945), 20.
19.Barrett Tillman, Whirlwind: The Air War against Japan (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011).
20.Kurtz’s daughter, born while he was overseas, became an actress, named for her father’s famous airplane.
21.Bunnell, Knockout Blow? The Army Air Force’s Operations against Ploesti and Balikpapan (Maxwell AFB: Air University, 2005), 39.
22.Blasé and Cassell, 47th Wing History: June 5, 1942, to October 17, 1945 (Fifteenth Air Force, 1945), 40–41.
23.Ford J. Lauer III, “History of the 99th Bombardment Group,” 99bombgroup.org, http://www.99bombgroup.org/history.html.
24.Ernest R. McDowell and William N. Hess, Checkertail Clan: The 325th Fighter Group in North Africa and Italy (Fallbrook: Aero, 1969), 49.
25.John T. Correll, “The Poltava Debacle,” Air Force Magazine (March 2011).
26.Edward Jablonski, Flying Fortress: The Illustrated Biography of the B-17s and the Men Who Flew Them (New York: Doubleday, 1965), 238.
27.Richard E. Drain et al., The Diamondbacks: History of the 99th Bomb Group (H) (Paducah: Turner, 1998), 53.
28.Charles Richards, Second to None (Bend: Maverick, 1999), 283.
29.Jay A. Stout, Fortress Ploesti: The Campaign to Destroy Hitler’s Oil (Havertown: Casemate, 2003), 148.
30.Richards, The Second Was First (Bend: Maverick, 2001), 281.
31.John D. Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: The 1st Fighter Group in World War II (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 119.
32.“Last Ploesti Refinery Smashed,” Deseret News, June 10, 1944.
33.Army Air Forces Evaluation Board, Report, Vol. VI: Ploesti (Mediterranean Theater of Operations, December 15, 1944), 50.
34.Bunnell, Knockout Blow? The Army Air Force’s Operations Against Ploesti and Balikpapan (Maxwell AFB: Air University, 2005), 42.
35.Robert S. Ehlers, Targeting the Third Reich (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), 132.
36.Craven and Cate, Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. III: Europe—Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), xiv, http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/III/index.html.
37.George Crawford, “Three Crawford Brothers: The WWII Memoirs of Three Pilots,” 52726.authorworld.com, http://www.52726.authorworld.com/.
38.Blasé and Cassell, 47th Wing History: June 5, 1942, to October 17, 1945 (Fifteenth Air Force, 1945), 45.
39.“Distinguished Unit Citation,” 376th Heavy Bomb Group, http://www.376hbgva.com/citations/bratislava.html.
40.Crawford, “Three Crawford Brothers: The WWII Memoirs of Three Pilots,” 52726.authorworld.com, http://www.52726.authorworld.com/.
41.John D. Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: The 1st Fighter Group in World War II (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 125.
42.Ibid., 126.
43.“The Ultimate Sacrifice,” homeofheroes.com, http://www.homeofheroes.com/wings/part2/18_kingsley.html.
44.Ibid.
45.Army Air Forces Evaluation Board, Report, Volume VI: Ploesti (Mediterranean Theater of Operations, December 15, 1944), 56.
46.Extracted from Army Air Forces Statistical Digest (Washington, D.C.: n.p., December 1945), 256.
47.Army Air Force, The Air Battle of Ploesti (n.p., 1945), 75–79.
CHAPTER FIVE
1.Luftwaffe Plans Division report, July 1944, cited in Alfred Price, Battle Over the Reich: The Strategic Bomber Offensive against Germany, Volume II: 1943–45 (UK: Classic, 2005), 224.
2.Barrett Tillman, “Shot Down or Out of Gas?,” Flight Journal (August 2006): 50.
3.Ibid., 51.
4.“The Sparta/Wilkins Crew,” 376th Heavy Bomb Group, http://www.376hbgva.com/crews/sparta.html.
5.Peter Becker, “The Role of Synthetic Fuel in WW II Germany,” Air University Review (July–August 1981), http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1981/jul-aug/becker.htm.
6.Sedgefield D. Hill, “The Fight’n” 451st Bombardment Group (H) (Paducah: Turner, 1990), 114.
7.Barrett Tillman, Above and Beyond: The Aviation Medals of Honor (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Press, 2002), 113.
8.Hugh N. Jones, “450th Bombardment Group (H),” 450th Bomb Group Memorial Association, http://www.450thbg.com/real/history/history.shtml.
9.Charles E. Francis and Adolph Caso, The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed a Nation (Wellesley: Branden, 1993), 319.
10.Daniel Haulman, The Battle of Memmingen, 18 July 1944 (Maxwell AFB: Air Force Historical Research Agency, 2010), 8.
11.John D. Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: The 1st Fighter Group in World War II (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 129.
12.Donald Caldwell, Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich (UK: Frontline Books, 2012), 334.
13.Walther Dahl, “Rammjager: Das Letzte Aufgebot,” library.thing.com, http://www.librarything.com/work/8490553/reviews.
14.John G. Bunnell, Knockout Blow? The Army Air Force’s Operations Against Ploesti and Balikpapan (Maxwell AFB: Air University, June 2005), 44.
15.Luftwaffe returns show that III/SG-77 lost twenty-one aircraft to enemy action in July. Other combat losses that month might have reduced the Americans’ actual results, but the Stuka unit only lost twenty-four planes in combat during the previous six months. “Flugzeugbestand und Bewegungsmeldungen,” ww2.dk, http://www.ww2.dk/oob/bestand/schlacht/biiisg77.html.
16.Surgeon General, U.S. Army, Medical Statistics in World War II (Washington: Historical Unit, U.S. Army Medical Service, 1975), Table 40d.
17.Papers of Lawrence L. Jenkins via John Seward, 2012.
18.Army Air Forces, The Air Battle of Ploesti (n.p., 1945), 81.
19.“B17 Pilot 1st Lt. James Jarmon 463rd Bombardment Group,” YouTube video of Jarmon’s 1985 interview, uploaded by m9078jk3, March 1, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGOP53TkGtA.
20.“The Ploesti Missions of the 449th Bomb Group,” norfield-publishing.com, http://www.norfield-publishing.com/449th/Ploesti/PloestiMissions.html.
2
1.Steve Blake, Adorimini (“Up and at ’Em!): A History of the 82nd Fighter Group in World War II (Marceline, MO: Walsworth, 1992), 198–99.
22.Quentin Richard Petersen, “A Bad Day for QR,” Memories Gallery on World War II Living Memorial Page, http://www.seniornet.org/ww2/gallery/memories/quentin/badday.shtml.
23.Army Air Forces, The Air Battle of Ploesti (n.p., 1945), 104.
24.Ibid., 67.
25.Jay Stout, Fortress Ploesti: The Campaign to Destroy Hitler’s Oil Supply (Havertown: Casemate, 2003), 226.
26.Army Air Forces Evaluation Board, Report, Volume VI: Ploesti (Mediterranean Theater of Operations, December 15, 1944).
27.Ibid.; Jay Stout, Fortress Ploesti: The Campaign to Destroy Hitler’s Oil Supply (Havertown: Casemate, 2003).
28.Brian Hutchins, “General Nathan Twining and the Fifteenth Air Force in World War II,” Master’s thesis, University of North Texas, May 2008, 47. (Recording by Twining in Rome, April 5, 1945.)
29.W. F. Craven and J. L. Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. III: Europe—Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 418, http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/III/AAF-III-12.html#page424.
30.“Col. Bob Richard’s Diary, 1st Fighter Group History.”
31.Ibid.
32.Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: The 1st Fighter Group in World War II (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 138.
33.XV FC One Year Escort (XV Fighter Command: n.p., 1945), 19.
34.Mullins, An Escort of P-38s: The 1st Fighter Group in World War II (St. Paul: Phalanx, 1995), 138.
35.“Descent into Hell,” Eric Hammel’s Books, 1998, http://www.erichammelbooks.com/books/f_aces-in-combat.php.
36.“Col. Bob Richard’s Diary, 1st Fighter Group History.”
37.Caldwell, Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich (Barnsley, England: Frontline Books, 2012), 357–58.
38.Hess interview, May 2011.
39.G. H. Blasé and R. W. Cassel, 47th Wing History, June 5, 1942, to October 17, 1945 (Italy, 1945), 58.
40.John L. Frisbee, “Operation Gunn,” Air Force Magazine (January 1995).
41.“Constantin M. ‘Bâzu’ Cantacuzino—The Adventurous Prince,” sihss.se, http://www.sihss.se/PrinceCantacuzinobiography.htm.
Forgotten Fifteenth Page 29
