Flying Through Hell
High above the clouds, amidst the steady hum of propellers, a large group of Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers flew steadily in formation. Amongst them, Colonel Addison Baker and his co-pilot, Major John Jerstad, sat at the helm of the aircraft endearingly named “Hell’s Wench.” Their crew included navigator George Reuter, engineer Charles Bennett, radio operator John Carol, gunners Edgar Faith, George Allen, William Wood, and Morton Stafford, and bombardier Alfred Pezzella. They maintained formation with their lead craft, the Teggie Anne, flown by Pilot Colonel Keith Compton.
As they flew over the skies of Romania, tension hung heavy in the air. Their target: a collection of large oil refineries located in and around the city of Ploiești (also spelled Ploesti), Romania. These refineries were responsible for producing about a third of the petroleum used by the German war machine. It was August of 1943 at the height of World War II, and the United States Army Airforce had planned a daring mission to strike these oil refineries with a massive low-flying bombing raid, one of the first of its kind in air combat history. This mission was known as Operation TIDAL WAVE.
The Hell's Wench Crew
Yet not everything was going according to plan. Only moments ago, Colonel Compton, piloting the lead plane on the mission, made a fateful wrong turn south, approved by mission commander General Ent who was aboard his plane. He was now heading in the wrong direction, away from their target in the city of Ploiești, and instead heading toward the city of Bucharest which sat 35 miles south of their destination. The time to correct this mistake was short and this one wrong turn had the potential to derail the entire mission.
Colonel Baker and several other pilots attempted to contact Compton on the radio and inform him of his mistake. But the Colonel’s radio was turned off, following an order to maintain radio silence and by extension, the element of surprise. Compton's own navigator, Colonel Harold Wicklund, also attempted to inform him over their plane’s intercom. Nevertheless, their pleas went unheeded.
With determination and resolve, and realizing that Colonel Compton was not changing course, several aircraft, including Hell’s Wench, turned back towards Ploiești, leading others in the 93rd Bomb Group to their targets. Colonel Baker had made a promise to his crew that they would bomb Ploesti, and he intended on keeping that promise. But as they approached the refineries, disaster struck.
Baker could see large clouds of black and white smoke rising in the distance. The enemy forces had deployed smoke pots and set fire to barrels of oil in the fields surrounding the refineries. Dense plumes of smoke rose into the sky, doing their job to obscure the pilot’s view of their targets.
There were also enormous barrage balloons tethered with steel cables placed around the most important parts of the refineries. These steel cables could slice through the aluminum wings of the Liberators. In that moment, Baker grasped the chilling reality: the enemy was acutely aware of their impending assault.
Suddenly, a burst of flak tore through the wing of the bomber, sending sparks and shrapnel flying through the air. Hell’s Wench had taken two devastating flak hits. The plane lurched violently, its wings trembling as Baker fought to maintain control. The German’s had also bolstered their anti-aircraft defenses, setting up over 50 heavy anti-aircraft guns, along with hundreds of smaller caliber weapons.
Colonel Baker pressed on, his commitment to his crew unwavering. With both wings damaged, he ordered the bombs released.
"Bombs away!" the bombardier yelled, a moment of levity amidst the chaos, a reflection of Alfred's spirit in the face of adversity.
But their ordeal was far from over. Leaking fuel and engulfed in flames, Hell's Wench pressed on past the refineries, only a few hundred feet in the air. However, due to the wrong turn taken earlier, the 93rd and 376th bomb groups were off their planned flight path. As a result, fellow bombers targeting similar objectives were flying directly toward them. With quick thinking and nerves of steel, Baker pulled up, maneuvering the aircraft to avoid a mid-air collision with the crisscrossing B-24s, the faces of other crewmen visible through the passing windows.
Baker fought valiantly to keep the plane aloft, his hands gripping the controls with a fierce determination, hoping to give his crew a chance to bail out. But it was no use, the engines had stalled. With a final, agonizing groan, the B-24 Liberator turned belly-up and plummeted from the sky, its wings engulfed in flames as it hurtled towards the earth below.
The crew had made the ultimate sacrifice, their lives given in service to their country. Not only had they fulfilled their mission, but they had also led a gallant charge, guiding a large group of bombers towards their targets, a testament to their bravery and sacrifice amidst the chaos of war.
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