The B-24D, named, Victory Ship, 41-23813, was assigned to the 8th Air force, the 44th Bomb Group, and the 68th Bomb Squadron in Britain. It took part in Operation Tidal Wave, the mission to destroy the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, on 1 August 1943.



The B-24D, Victory Ship, flown by Pilot Lt. Alfred A. Starring, was lost on January 21,1944, on a mission to bomb "V" weapons sites in the Pas de Calais, France. It was repeatedly attacked by fighters until 3 of it's engines were knocked out, the copilot was killed, and the pilot was wounded. With the copilot slumped over the controls and only one engine running the wounded pilot couldn't maintain altitude and ordered the crew to bail out. The pilot, copilot, ball turret gunner, and left waist gunner were all in the plane when it crashed. The ball turret gunner refused to jump and blocked the hatch, while the waist gunner opened his chute inside the plane and was forced to attempt to make it to the bomb bay due to the camera hatch being blocked. Two crewmen either suffered chute failure or jumped too low for them to open properly and were killed. Four were captured and one evaded capture to make it back to England 4 months later. It was the crew's first mission.



Pilot Alfred A. Starring. Lost over France. Jan 21, 1944. MACR 2358