The B-24D Liberator bomber, 42-40402, named, The Sandman, was named, and flown, by Lt. Robert Sternfels and his copilot, Lt. Barney Jackson, was originally in the 9th Air Force, the 98th Bomb Group, and the 345th Bomb Squadron, on Operation Tidal Wave, the famous mission to destroy the German held oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. The Sandman and it's crew survived the Ploesti mission, although the aircraft itself was damaged when it struck a barrage balloon cable over White IV, that the two pilots were unable to see in time to avoid, because of flying through the thick smoke covering the entire area.  Lt. Sternfels was assigned to fly in Flight 4, the fourth flight behind Flight 1 of the 98th Bomb Group's airplanes, and just behind the Element Group Leader, Col John Kane's Lead aircraft, Hail Columbia. earlier, Lt. Sternfels was, apparently, reassigned, during the mission, to move forward and fly in Flight 1, three planes to the right of Hail Columbia, taking Lt. Robert Nespor's place since Lt. Nespor had crashed shortly after takeoff and was killed in John Young's regular airplane, the B-24D, Kickapoo. After Lt. Sternfels bombed his target at, White IV, The Sandman, struck a barrage balloon cable, which struck the prop of Sternfels'  #3 inboard RH wing, engine, causing major damage on the RH side of, The Sandman's fuselage, and also scratches and damage to the airplane's prop blades. Per the attack plan, Lt. Sternfels followed and joined up south of Ploesti with several other flak damaged straggler airplanes, including his Group Leader, John Kane's crippled airplane, Hail Columbia, and followed him on south, as they made their escape away from the flak guns and fighter airplanes of the German and Romanian air defenses south of Ploesti. Sternfels and his copilot Lt. Barney Jackson, followed Col. Kane, in Hail Columbia, joined by Lt. Royden Lebrecht, with Lt LeBrecht, flying cover for the slower damaged 98th Bomb Group's airplanes with his  almost completely undamaged B-24, The Squaw, and  followed by Gilbert Hadley, in Hadley's  (badly shot up) Harem, they all flew on,  south through Turkey, and, then, north and west across the Mediterranean and Ionean Seas to the British airbase at Nicosia, Cyprus, where they landed safely, minus Lt. Hadley and his crew, who crashed trying to ditch his B-24 in the waters off the southern Turkish coast. Walter Stewart was ahead of them, also flying toward Nicosia, Cyprus, in, Utah Man. Hadley, who, miraculously, was able to fly his badly damaged plane south, through, and away from, the flak guns south of the city, and joined up with Col. John Kane's shot up straggler Lead B-24D, Hail Columbia, along with Walter Stewart in, Utah Man, with Lt. Royden LeBrecht undamaged and flying cover for them. Hadley knew his plane couldn't make it all the way home to his airbase at Benghazi. But, he was able to nurse his crippled, Harem, as far as past the south Turkish coast, nearing the safety at Cyprus.                                                                                                          The odds were against him, though. Even as they were nearing Cyprus, Hadley, realized he was out of gas and, probably, out of engine oil, too, and radioed a farewell  to his friends, Col. Kane, Royden LeBrecht, John Young, and Bob Sternfels, in The Sandman, and turned his airplane back toward Turkey in the darkness. But, before he could bring his failing, but beloved, airplane, his B-24D, Hadley's Harem, and his crew, back to the Turkish coast, Hadley's three working engines suddenly seized and failed, out of fuel and engine oil. While he was descending in the dark, he crashed into the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Turkey, trying for the possible but dangerous ditching in the shallow water close to the Turkish beach. Lt. Hadley and his copilot, Lt. James Lindsey, were trapped in their crushed cockpit and drowned in the sinking plane with their bombardier, Lt. Leon Storms, previously killed by the flak round (KIA) that hit them square in their forward nose section. 3-MIA-KIA. Seven of their crewmen survived the mission and the crash, swam to shore, and were interned by the Turks.  (7-INT-TURKEY).  Col. Kane and his pilot, John Young, made it to Cyprus, crash landed and wrote off, Hail Columbia, after  running over and across a ditch that the British had dug across the airbase's runway threshold which took out their landing gear and totally wrecking, Hail Columbia, but with no one badly injured. Lt. Sternfels gave Col. John Kane a ride in, The Sandman, back to Cairo, Egypt, several days later, and, later still, flew him all the way back to Benghazi from Cairo, a few days later after the Ploesti mission. 1 Aug 43.
                                                               
The Sandman, was later lost during a mission over Italy. FTR - ITA. 19 Dec 43. MACR 1641 - Pilot John W. Viers

Crew of The Sandman on the Ploesti raid:

1st Lt. Robert W. Sternfels - Pilot
2nd Lt. Barney Jackson - CoPilot
2nd Lt. Anthony W. Flesch - Navigator
2nd Lt. David A. Polaschek - Bombadier
T/Sgt. William W. Stout - Flight Engineer/Gunner
T/Sgt. Frank Just - Radio Operator/Gunner
Sgt. Raymond E. Stewart - Gunner
Sgt. Harry Rifkin - Waist Gunner
Sgt. Merle B. Bowen - Waist Gunner
S/Sgt. John T. Weston - Ball Turret Tail Gunner (WIA) - 2nd degree burns on his lower
right leg