Evening star., 1943-08-20
Highest u. S. Decoration Goes
To Two CoIoneIs in PIoesti Raid
BY the Associated Press.

os thc hSsotidltu FEeSS.
CAIRO, Aug. 20.-For "conspicu
Gus gallantry in action and intrepid.
ity at the risk of their lives above
and beyond the call Of duty" in the
August l raid on the Ploesti OF
fields, Coils. John Roger CKiller)
Kane of Shreveport, La, and Leor
william johnson of Moline, Kans
have been awarded the Nation:
highest decoration-the Congress
sional Medal of Honor.
The awards, announced to the
United States 9th Air Force by the
War Department yesterday, were
made for the precisely planned low
level attack by more than ITS Lib
orators on the Rumanian fields
which had fed the Axis war machine
one-third of its petroleum.
The oak leaf cluster to the Dis
tinguished Service Medal was con-
ferred at the same time on Brig,
Gen. Uzal Girard Ent of Northum-
berland, Pa, for outstanding opera
ton against the enemy in the Med
iterranean theater, including the
ploesti attack.
Gen. Ent, chief of staff of the
United States Army in the Middle
East and 9th Air Force Bomber
commander, asserted that the as
sault. which laid blazing blanket
over the rich fields, was expected to
force the defeat of the Axis to a
faster conclusion.
Crash Landed Plane in Cyprus.
II think that the final result will
prove we dealt the Axis a smashing
blow where it really hurts" he de-
clared after the awards were an
nounced
1t was believed that the presenta-
ton of the awards to Coils. Kane
and johnson was the first dual
award of the Congressional Medal
for a single air action.
Col. Kane brought his Liberator
Hail Columbia to crash landing in
Cyprus after the mission.
Experts examined the heavily
damaged plane and declared they
could not see how it could have
made the return flight-even with
Col. Kane at the controls.
When Col Kane and his crew
scrambled through the escape hatch
after the landing, they dropped to
their knees and kissed the ground.
1t. John S. Young of Dallas, Tex,
the co-pilot, said the bomber came
back only because the two great
ham-like arms of Killer Kane
grabbed it and held it together until
he got it back"
Col. Kane had prepared for
Ploesti Realistically. He spent the
evening before writing to his wife
Pansy, his mother and his father. a
Baptist preacher, and putting his
affairs in order.
Planes Separated in Clouds.
At the briefing, he told his men:
ut would take an entire army
the size of the British 9th Army
year or more to fight its way up
there and smash the source of Axis
oil.
1--WE are going to do it with 1000
men in single day
Col. Kane led the third element
In the flight He encountered
mountains shrouded with clouds so
thick that the formation became
separated from the others.
He decided to strike alone If it
became necessary.
1t became necessary.
Skimming the ground in the
planned low-level attack, Col. Kane
defied enemy fighters and brought
antiaircraft artillery into action to
drop his BOMBS into the already
roaring mass of flames on the tar
get and the explosions sent smoke
billowing up into the very bomb
bays of the attacking craft.
The Hail Columbia's No 4 en-
gine caught a direct hit. Five 40
millimeter shells smashed into the
ship. Another engine was hit. The