Lt. Col. Ramsay Potts flew 41 x combat missions in WWII, including deep penetrations from England to the Messerschmidt factory at Weiner Neustadt, Austria and German synthetic fuel plants. On 21-Nov-42, he was engaged by 5 x JU-88's over the Bay of Biscay, of which his crew shot down 2 of the Ju-88's. He took over command of the 453rd on 19-Mar-44.

When he came to the Mediterranean Theatre in 1942, he was a senior pilot in the 93rd Bomb Group, and commanded one of the group's long range B-24 Liberator squadrons, the 330th Bomb Squadron. He performed the first night bombing missions on port docks and shipping at Bizerte, Tunisia. He led his squadron on the daring low level attack against the oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania on 1-Aug-43. Taking off from the Benghazi desert airfield at dawn, the 26 year old Major Potts, flying his B-24 41-24147, The Duchess, was leading his squadron, assigned to the second formation of the 93rd Bomb Group, of the 178 bombers on the raid. To achieve maximum surprise, the aircraft flew at very low level, and were timed to arrive over the target within a very short period in order to saturate the very heavy ground and air defenses.

Over the mountains of Albania, bad weather disrupted the B-24 formations, splitting the force in two and leaving Potts and his squadron unexpectedly in the leading element.

Just short of the target, the Mission Commander, Gen. Uzal Ent ordered his pilot, Col. Kieth Compton to turn east toward Bucharest, away from their assigned course north to Ploesti.

Potts was one of the pilots who broke radio silence and shouted warnings to Gen. Ent and Col. Compton in the 376th Bombing Group's lead aircraft, Teggie Ann, but Ent ignored the warnings, and ordered Compton to continue east, compromising the intricate attack plan.

The delay caused by the wrong turn, resulted in the 93rd Bomb Group, and several of the 376th Bomb Group's pilots to turn back north to bomb their assigned targets, the Concordia Vega Refinery, White II, and the Unirea Sepranta refinery, code named White III, approaching the refinery area at from the south over the worst of the anti aircraft defenses, and at the same time as the 98th and the 44th Bomb Groups were approaching the same area, but from the North!

Within minutes, the rogue planes from the 93rd and the 376th began bombing the Astra Romano Refinery complex, and, quickly, those refineries were covered in explosions, flames, and dense smoke, which began taking down the airplanes along with the the flak guns and barrage balloon cables and explosives tied to them. The bombers from the 98th, and the 44th Bomb Groups, flying at 250 feet into their targets from the north, had to avoid others coming from the south, including those from Potts's 93rd and some from the 376th, coming at them head on.

Potts led his 12 bombers to drop their bombs into what a military publication called "merciless fire from almost every conceivable ground defense weapon". During the attack, Potts's aircraft, The Duchess, was badly damaged, and some of his crew were wounded by flak. Escaping from the target, his bombers were attacked by enemy fighters all the way to the Ionian Sea, where the straggler bombers became widely scattered, destroying the mutual defense they provided for one another.

Potts managed to keep his bomber flying despite severe damage to the flight control cables that a crewman repaired, and he was one of a small number to return to Benghazi after almost 14 hours in the air. On landing back at Benghazi, The Duchess, had more than 50 fist sized holes in the wings and fuselage. For his part in the raid, Major Potts was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. During his career, Ramsay Potts was also awarded the Silver Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, the British Distinguished Flying Cross, the French Croix De Guerre, and 2 bombing group Presidential Unit Citations. Ramsay Potts retired from the Air Force with the rank of Major General. He died on 28-May-2006.

Service

Events

Event	Location	Date
Born	Memphis, Tennessee	24 October 1916
Son of Ramsay Douglas Potts Sr and Ann Clifton [Van Dyke] Potts.
Based		1942 – 1944
Assigned to 330BS, 93BG, 8AF USAAF.
Died	Boynton Beach, FL	28 May 2006
Buried	Arlington National Cemetery	June 2006
Arlington National Cemetery Columbarium 8 L-10-2