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Published: July 20th 2013
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BLACK SUNDAY
The photo shows a diecast model in 48 scale of the plane flown by Royden L. LeBrecht on Black Sunday. BLACK SUNDAY
The oil refineries around Ploesti, Rumania supplied the Nazis with about sixty percent of their fuel supply. Winston Churchill called it the “taproot of German might”. The oil works were a vital target to the allied war effort but they could not be attacked by the Royal Air Force because Ploesti was far beyond the range of their most capable bombers. The Russians pretty much had ground forces only and they were busily engaged with the Nazi peril elsewhere. The Consolidated B-24D Liberator burst onto the scene in the Mediterranean Theater during the summer of 1942. The B-24 was an ugly plane, and it was a brute to fly, but its unique wing configuration enabled it to carry a much heavier bomb load over much further distances than a B-17 could fly. Their primary mission was to drive the Nazi, Rommel, and his army out of North Africa but early in 1943 they found time to strike a blow for Churchill against Ploesti. That raid did not do much damage but it did alert the wily Nazi that his oil fields had become vulnerable. They responded to the raid by greatly strengthening their defenses. In a few short weeks Ploesti fairly bristled with anti-aircraft guns, fighter cover and radar. They even had guns mounted on railway cars so that the guns could be moved along the track and kept in action longer during an air raid. It had become a much more formidable target than it previously was by the time our brilliant war leaders conceived of a plan called Operation Tidal Wave. It was an ambitious plan that involved five full bomb groups. The 44
th, 93
rd, and 389
th were transferred down form the 8
th Air Force in England to join the 98
th and 376
th under command of Brigadier General Uzal G. Ent of the 9
th Air Force. The plan called for the raid to go in under radio silence at low altitude to confound the Nazi radar. It was to be a single concentrated attack at treetop level to upset the anti-aircraft gunners. All of the B-24s carried an additional fuel load stored in bladders suspended in the bomb bay. On Sunday morning, August 1, 1943 all 178 planes lumbered into the air from bases near Benghazi, but one of them crashed on takeoff. It is a long way from Benghazi to Ploesti and some of the planes got separated from the others which caused the single mass attack to break down. The 98
th Group was called “The Pyramiders” because they first came on station in Egypt. They were commanded by Colonel John R. “Killer” Kane. After the mission got separated Killer took charge of the 98
th, 44
th, and 389
th Groups. Colonel Keith K. Compton commanded the 376
th and 93
rd Groups onward. Compton arrived on target first but his attack fell into disorder because some his planes got lost. Killer’s attack was a bit disordered too because of the havoc created by the low level tactics. Killer was awarded the Medal of Honor for circling the target area to coordinate his attack. All of the planes eventually found their way to the oil refineries but the element of surprise was lost and the low level bomb runs turned into a turkey shoot. Some of the targets were missed because of blowing smoke. As the boiler plant and cracking facilities burst into flames planes following had to fly through the inferno. The haphazard raid did cause substantial damage to the refineries but the damage was soon repaired and full production resumed within a month. We lost 54 of our planes and their valiant ten-man crews forever. Operation Tidal Wave, the ill-conceived brain work of a man named Colonel Jacob Smart, turned out to be so costly that it was soon revered as Black Sunday. The 98
th Group was called “The Pyramiders” because they first came on station in Egypt. One of the planes flying with Killer Kane’s 98
th Group was nicknamed the Squaw. It was flown on Black Sunday by a pilot named Royden L. LeBrecht. Royden completed the bomb mission but had to land The Squaw at an allied airfield on Cyprus. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his work that day and went on to perform admirably in other dangerous missions; winning promotion to the rank Major along the way. After the war he got married and became a successful businessman and real estate tycoon in Tucson. In 2005 he passed away leaving a million dollar endowment to Collin College in Texas. He believed that education created opportunity.
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