"Byker" wrote in
:

"DAN" wrote in message
...

B-24s low altitude bombing of refineries at Ploesti, Romania
op Tidal Wave 1943-08-01

Black Sunday: 2nd-worst loss on a single USAAF mission: 660 aircrew.
178 B-24s took off, only 88 made it back to Libya.
All for "no result" in curtailing output.

RIP to the brave men.

In our squadron on Guam in 1973 there was an old MSgt who had once
been a B-24 waist gunner. He made it clear that there was no love lost
between him and that aircraft. When compared to a B-17, he said it was
like "comparing a station wagon to a Mack truck," that it was
exhausting for crews to fly and difficult to keep in formation, and
its fuel system, running through the fuselage, often meant that enemy
fire would quickly turn it into a torch...



The B24 was invaluable for submarine patrols
and recon work because of it's range, but for
bombing raids in the ETO it was way too vulnerable
to any kind of damage.