Military site : airfield
British Mallala Airbase Benghazi, Libya 1942
Captain John S. Young in the cockpit of a production line B-24 Liberator at the Consolidated Vultee Plant at Fort Worth, Texas, in 1945. Capt. John S. Young was Col. John R. Kane's copilot on the B-24D, 'Hail Columbia' on Operarion Tidal Wave over Ploesti, Romania, August 1,1943. Col. Kane and Capt. Young successfully bombed their target, White IV, the Astra Romano Oil Refinery, fought their way out of the Ploesti target area, and successfully flew their crippled B-24 back to the British air base at Nicosia, Cyprus, crash landing 'Hail Columbia' at Nicosia.
Lt. John S. Young and the B-24D "Teggie Ann" - "The Blue Streak 1943
Robert Sternfels B-24D "The Sandman" 1943
Mahalla Airbase, Benghazi Libya 1943
Wheelus Air Base was a United States Air Force base located in the Kingdom of Libya. At one point it was the largest U.S. military facility outside the United States with an area of 20 sq miles right on the coast off Tripoli. The base had its own beach club, the largest military hospital outside the US, a multiplex cinema, a bowling alley and a high school for 500 students. The base also had its own radio and TV station as well as a shopping mall and fast food chain outlets. At its height it had over 15,000 military personnel and their dependents on base. Wheelus Air Base was originally built by the Italian Air Force in 1923 and was known as Mellaha Air Base. Today the facility is known as Mitiga International Airport.
Prior to the war, the airbase was constructed in 1923 and used by the Italian Air Force. In 1933 the roads around the air base and the neighbouring Mellaha Lake became the new home for the popular Tripoli Grand Prix motor race.[1]
Mellaha was used by the German Luftwaffe during the North African Campaign, with the Germans using it for short range recon units, as well as coastal and naval recon units. Special weather recon units also existed at Mehalla. The main Luftwaffe unit stationed at the base was the 2nd Staffel of the Aufklärungsgruppe (H) 14 or 2.(H)/14.
The squadron was equipped with twelve single-engined Henschel Hs 126, an aircraft with 2-man crews, which could cover approx 710 km, with a maximum speed of 360 km/h, as well as three Fieseler Fi 156 Storch liaison aircraft, and a Junkers Ju 52 for transport of men and materiel.
The airbase was captured by the British 8th Army in January 1943.
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The US Army Air Force began using Mellaha as a base in January 1943. It was used by the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the 12th Air Force for B-24 bomb missions into Italy and southern parts of Germany.
In addition, Mellaha Field was used by Air Transport Command. It functioned as a stopover en route to Benina Airport near Benghazi or to Tunis Airport, Tunisia on the North African Cairo-Dakar transport route for cargo, transiting aircraft and personnel.[2]
On 15 April 1945 Mellaha AAF was taken over by USAAF’s Air Training Command. It was renamed Wheelus Army Air Field (AAF) on 17 May 1945 in honor of USAAF Lieutenant Richard Wheelus who had died earlier that year in a plane crash in Iran.
Not yet known
Group
Constituted as 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 19 Oct 1942 and activated in Palestine on 31 Oct. Began combat immediately, using B-24 aircraft. Operated with Ninth AF from bases in the Middle East, Nov 1942-Sep 1943, and with Twelfth AF from Tunisia...
Military | Colonel | B-24 Command Pilot | 376th Bomb Group
Norman Appold graduated from the Aviation Cadet Training Program in 1942, commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. After completing pilot training, he served as a B-24 pilot in the 376th Bomb Group Association, completing 63 missions.
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Military | Lieutenant Colonel | Air Group Commander / Command Pilot | 376th Bomb Group
Col. Addison Baker was the Commanding Officer of the 93rd Bomb Group, 8th Air Force from May 17, 1943 to August, 1943. Baker's Bomb Group, the 93rd, was one of three bomb groups from the Eighth Air Force in Britain that were sent to Benghazi, Libya to...
Military | Second Lieutenant | Co-Pilot | 93rd Bomb Group
Prisoner of War (POW)/ crashed on 8/1/43 while TDY to 9th AF for Ploesti Raid in B-24 'Pudgy' 42-40613 Prisoner of War (POW) in Rumania.
Awards: POW, WWII Victory, EAME.
Military | General | B-24 Command Pilot - Squadron Commander - Commanding Officer | 376th Bomb Group
Keith Karl Compton (December 9, 1915 – June 15, 2004) was an American Air Force Lieutenant General who was Vice Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command. He flew as Command Pilot with Gen. Uzal Ent on Operation Tidal Wave over the Ploesti oil...
Military | Staff Sergeant | Tail Gunner | 376th Bomb Group
Scott Farrington served as a tail gunner with the 515th Bomb Squadron of the 376th Bomb Group. He flew on the crew of Donaldson Hurd, flying 'Dopey Goldberg', during the Ploesti raid on 1 Aug 1943. He was shot down with Hurd over Foggia Italy a couple...
Military | Colonel | B-24 Command Pilot - 98th Bomb Group Commander | 98th Bomb Group
John Riley Kane (January 5, 1907 – May 29, 1996) was a colonel in the United States Army Air Corps and later the United States Air Force. He received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Congressional Medal of Honor, in World War II, for his...
Military | First Lieutenant | Pilot | 376th Bomb Group
B-24
Military | Second Lieutenant | Pilot B-24D
Lt. John Riley lost his life, as one of the first casualties of "Operation Tidal Wave" on August 1st, 1943, one of the biggest, most important, and most daring air raids of WWII, coming in at tree top level to destroy the Germans' Romanian oil...
Military | Major | B-24 Command Bomber Pilot | 98th Bomb Group
Lt. Robert Sternfels was a B-24D command bomber pilot in WWII who flew the famous B-24D bomber, 'The Sandman' on the mission Operation Tidal Wave to bomb the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, August 1, 1943. After enlisting as an Air Force pilot in...
Military | Colonel | B-24 Bomber Command Pilot | 376th Bomb Group
Walter Stewart was a B-24 bomber command pilot in WWII in the 8th Air Force, 93rd Bombing Group. In 1941, Stewart was a 24 year-old, U.S. Army Air Force cadet at the University of Utah. "We were pulling guns around with horses as a plane flew...
B-24 Liberator
Crew of "The Sandman" on the Ploesti raid:
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B-24 Liberator
Shot down by a Me-109 over Ploesti. Two of the crew KIA, eight became POW's. MACR 154
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B-24 Liberator
This aircraft originally served in the 344th BS as 'HAIL COLUMBIA'. It was 344th CO Col. John R. Kane's personal aircraft until Kane became 98th BG CO and turned it over to Herman "Big-Dog" Lewis. Lewis changed the right side nose art to 'LITTLE-CHIEF...
B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator #42-40657 'G I Ginnie', 514th BS, 376th BG, 9th AF, flew on 1st Aug 43 Ploesti oil refinery raid piloted by Norman C Appold, returning safely to Libya.
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
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| 29 April 2019 13:44:08 | Kickapoo | Changes to media associations |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 14 December 2018 04:25:34 | Kickapoo | Changes to media associations |
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Personal Archive |
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| Date | Contributor | Update |
| 02 November 2016 22:35:53 | 466thHistorian | Created entry with name, known as, latitude, longitude, usaaf from date, usaaf to date, construction date and history |
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