"Byker" <byker@do~rag.net> wrote in
news:ToWdnRtdFMQrtZ3BnZ2dnUU7-fXNnZ2d@supernews.com:
> "DAN" wrote in message
> news:hqsvvdl7mv12rjuu21e75hoga6f8rrcmck@4ax.com...
>>
>> 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.
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