The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-08-02
Seeks
Crash Cause
Continued from Page y

field when spectators saws the right
wing collapse and drop off seconds
after the glider was released from
the towline. The left wing buckled
and folded back against the fuselage
as the glider plummeted toward the
ground.
The flight was staged by the Rob-
ertson Corp. and the first troop car
rier command of the Army Air
Forces. Maj. Walter T. Fletcher, who
piloted the Dougles CAT cargo plane
which lowed the glider, said the
craft was released without incident
Others killed were:
Lieut.. Col. Paul H. Hazelton, mis-
cellaneous area officer o fthe Army
Air Service; Max Doyne of the ST.
Louis public utilities department;
Charles Cunningham, assistant city
comptroller; st. Louis County Judge
Henry Mueller; Harold A. Kruger
vice president and general manager
of the Robertson Corp; Capt. Mil
ton G. Klugh of the list Troop
Carrier Command, Stout Field, In
dianapolis, Ind, pilot of the glider;
and Pfc. j. M. Davis, also attached
to the list Troop Carrier Command
The Liberators also ran into heavy
anti-aircraft fire.
At least two of the 13 oil re-
fineries in the Polesti area were
wrecked and the entire district, IS
miles north of Bucharest, was left
wreathed in flames and smoke. Col
Leon Johnson, who commanded one
group of Liberators, said the scene
was the closest thing to Dante's
Inferno I ever saw"
Dipping to chimney-stack level
wave after wave of the four-engined
bombers swept over the 10 square
mile oil fields shortly after 2 p. m
yesterday, dropping 300 tons of
high explosive and fire bombs and
strafing everything in sight.
(Brig. Gen. Uzal G. Emf, chief OF
the 9th Air Force bomber command
and leader of the raid said that the
attack Contributed materially to
hastening the end of the Axis" Nor
mally, he said, the fields produce
$1,000 tons of fuel oil, ''but 1t will
be long time before they turn out
that much oil again.')
Returning pilots told Of huge gaso-
line storage tanks exploding in
mushrooms OF game and of build
ings in the refinery area being blown
to bits.
The refineries provide 80 per cent
of the German air forces gasoline
supplies.
A refinery at Rampant, 20 miles
from Ploesti itself, was destroyed
completely and direct hits were
scored on the cracking tower of an
other nearer Ploesti, effectively halt
ing production there. Smoke and
fire hampered full observation OF
damage to other detectives.
The raid was the fourth by the
Allies on the Ploesti fields, the Rus
SLAMS having bombed them twice in
1941 and the 9th U. S. Air Force
having followed through with raid
from Palestinian bases a little more
than a year ago.
One Massive Blow
This time, the Allied high COM
mand decided to attempt to destroy
the Ploesti ref1neries and other in
stallations with one massive blow and
Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton, Amer
lean middle-eastern commander,
took over the task OF training 1000
American crewmen.
The big Liberators roared out from
their middle-eastern bases early yes
terday and swept across the Medi-
terranean and Aegean Seas and Bull
garia into Rumania, barely skim
ming the tree-topS at times. Church
going crowds waved to them.
Over Ploesti, the airmen rained
bombs on their targets and within
matter Of minutes the oil fields
were a mass Of flames. The flyers
used special low-level bomb sights.
Many of the bombs dropped had de-
layed action fuses.
Flying Officer Raymond j. La
combe of Providence, r. L, said his
plane swept so low that it returned
to its base with corn on the bottom.
The bomb bay doors failed to open
on Liberator piloted by Lieut.. John
Blacks Of New Kensington, Pa, and
Tech. Sgt. Joseph Landry Of Man
chester, N. M, the engineer, climbed
down from the top turret and crank
ed them open by hand.