1st Lt. Horace W. Austin, Jr. from Virginia Beach, VA, flew as command pilot in the B-24D 42-40778, 'Southern Comfort' on the Aug 1, 1943 raid on Ploesti, while temporarily assigned to the 9th Air Force. He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for this mission under G.O. #90, Hqrs. Ninth Air Force, Sept. 16, 1943,



Austin’s crew was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the 1 Aug 1943 low-level raid under G.O. #90, Hqrs. Ninth Air Force, Sept. 16, 1943, yet for some unknown reason, amendments revoked their DFCs, then awarded the DFCs for the raid under GO #150, Hq. 9th Air Force, December 30, 1943. There was some confusion as to whether the DFCs were a basic award or an Oak Leaf Cluster on G.O. #90, so this drove the amendments and some of their award cards are different.



After Ploesti, two weeks later, on 16 Aug, 1943, he was shot down in 'Southern Comfort', on a mission to Foggia, Italy, where the 506th Squadron suffered terrible losses of both men and aircraft. Two of Lt. Austin's crew, Lt. Singer and Lt. Finder were KIA. The rest of the crew were captured by the Italians. After being hit by flak, the plane caught fire, and pilot Austin had to give the bail out order. Austin and eight crew members became Prisoners of War, and 2 were Killed in Action (KIA). Lt. Austin escaped from his captivity from the Germans after his bail out. The rest of the crew was captured by the Italians. When Austin and other officers were handed over to the Germans for transport to Stalag Lufts in Germany, he and two others jumped off the POW train. He used his Air Force map, as he spent a couple of weeks walking across Italy after he escaped from the German POW train. The other two were recaptured and shot. Austin spent several weeks walking across Italy until he ultimately crossed over the British 8th Army lines in Italy and was flown back to London, and then back to the USA.



He was training Nationalist Chinese pilots in California when the U.S. dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Horace Austin died in 1966. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.