WW2 Howard F 4599 Gotts US Air Force - 4

What went wrong continued

• Col Compton's 376 Group led, but once all the groups were in the air and in line he set off at full throttle without keeping track of whether the others were maintaining position. The last three groups lost visual contact as they were travelling more slowly to conserve fuel. Sternfels noted that Compton took his own maps rather than rely on his navigator. He considered Compton did what he wanted to do rather than follow the plan.
• When they reached the Balkans they hit clouds and rain. Compton increased height, radar picked him up and alerted the Germans to the impending attack. By this time the gap to the last three groups was over an hour.
• Pitesti (at left of map) was the last assembly point where they turned east. At Targovisti (centre) Compton mistook it for Foresti (NW of Ploesti), turned South East and ignored radio calls from his other pilots. After realising where he was they turned north, ran into heavy flak, and ended up attacking the wrong targets so that they were burning an hour before the scheduled bombers arrived.
• Three other groups were to fly along the railway track from Floresti to Ploesti. Unfortunately the Germans realised this was a very likely route and built railway trucks with anti-aircraft guns which fired straight up into the planes’ bellies. At least 8 were lost on the run-in by these guns.
• Howard’s 44 Group, were attacking Blue target (Creditul Minier at Brazi). As they flew in the long range Tokyo fuel tanks inside the aircraft were set alight and they could have been the victim of the rail-mounted guns.

The pilot climbed to 500 feet and two crew parachuted out. Howard and the rest of the crew didn't make it.

In all 50 Liberators were lost. Over 500 men were killed, a third of the force. At least it achieved some limited success in reducing oil supply to German military by 40%.