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B-24 Liberator #41-11591' Lorraine' 513rd BS, 376th BG, 9th AF, flew on 1st Aug 43 Ploesti oil refinery raid piloted by William R Zimmerman, returning safely to Libya. Seen here taxiing on a badly flooded air base in Italy, April 44.
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B-24 Liberator #41-11591' Lorraine' 513rd BS, 376th BG, 9th AF, flew on 1st Aug 43 Ploesti oil refinery raid piloted by William R Zimmerman, returning safely to Libya. Seen here taxiing on a badly flooded air base in Italy, April 44.
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B-24 Liberator #41-11591' Lorraine' 513rd BS, 376th BG, 9th AF, flew on 1st Aug 43 Ploesti oil refinery raid piloted by William R Zimmerman, returning safely to Libya. Seen here getting some fettling whilst parked on a badly flooded air base in Italy, April 44.
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B-24 Liberator #41-11591' Lorraine' 513rd BS, 376th BG, 9th AF, flew on 1st Aug 43 Ploesti oil refinery raid piloted by William R Zimmerman, returning safely to Libya.
B-24 Liberator #41-11591 'Lorraine' 513th BS, 376th BG, 9th AF, flew on 1st Aug 43 Ploesti oil refinery raid, piloted by William R. Zimmerman, returned safely to Libya. Renamed from 'Queen Bee'.
Later transferred to the 450th Bomb Group, was on flight from Casablanca to RAF St. Mawgan in Cornwall Mar 29, 1944. Due to fog, aircraft was unable to locate St. Mawgan and was diverted to Fairwood Common. Unable to descend because of clouds, crew was ordered to bail out. Four did so and landed safely. However, the flight engineer refused to jump, possibly due to the low altitude. The pilot had to try and crash-land the plane, the plane passed over the airfield, lost height, smashed through a guard hut, and came to rest with its nose embedded in the hedgebank. Pilot survived the crash but the flight engineer had forgotten to buckle himself into the copilot's seat was thrown through the windscreen on impact and died in hospital 3 days later.
Service
Units
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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...
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People
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Civilian | Navigator | 458th Bomb Group
FJS participated in the D-DAY assault rising at 2am and in the air over France by 5:30 flying at tree top level towards their targets. He flew a total of 30 combat missions over Germany and at one point had to parachute out of a damaged aircraft but...
Missions
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1 August 1943
Operation TIDAL WAVE. B-24D Liberators attack the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. The bombers flew low to avoid radar detection and dropped time delayed bombs. Out of the 177 B-24s that took part in the raid 167 managed to attack their targets. 57...
Events
Event |
Location |
Date |
Survived Ploesti |
Ploiești, Romania |
1 August 1943 |
Flew on 1st Aug 43 Ploesti oil refinery raid, piloted by William R Zimmerman, returned safely to Libya.
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Crashed |
Swansea Airport, Fairwood Common, Swansea, Swansea SA2 7JU, UK |
29 March 1944 |
Was on flight from Casablanca to RAF St. Mawgan in Cornwall Mar 29, 1944. Due to fog, aircraft was unable to locate St. Mawgan and was diverted to Fairwood Common. Unable to descend because of clouds, crew was ordered to bail out. Four did so and landed safely. However, the flight engineer refused to jump, possibly due to the low altitude. The pilot had to try and crash-land the plane, the plane passed over the airfield, lost height, smashed through a guard hut, and came to rest with its nose embedded in the hedgebank. Pilot survived the crash but the flight engineer had forgotten to buckle himself into the copilot's seat was thrown through the windscreen on impact and died in hospital 3 days later.
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Assigned |
Benghazi, Libya |
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513th BS, 376th BG, 9th AF.
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Assigned |
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Later transferred to the 450th Bomb Group.
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