The RAF hit Romania for the first time. On the same day, the Soviet Air Forces hit Galatz.
A large air raid was staged on Hollandia, Indonesia. The mission was successful with no losses, but the aircraft ran into a severe weather front on the return and 46 of the 170 aircraft in the raid went down. The day acquired the name "Black Sunday" as a result.
The attacking force was made up of B-24s, B-25s and A-20s, escorted by P-38s
The United States Army Air Service launched its around the world flying expedition from Seattle, Washington, although as previously noted, it could be argued the party had commenced several days prior by flying to Seattle.
Today in World War II History—February 20, 1944: Allies launch Operation Argument (“Big Week”), a week-long aerial attack of 6000 sorties which devastates the German aircraft industry.
Sarah Sundin.
For the first time, one of the features of the daylight portions of the bombing raids was to draw German fighters into combat, a change in strategy. The six-day offensive would see heavy German fighter losses, but Allied bomber crew losses were nearly ten times higher.
Two Medals of Honor were awarded to crewmen killed attempting to land their bomber and save the life of stricken pilot they would not abandon.
Walter E. Truemper.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy in connection with a bombing mission over enemy-occupied Europe on 20 February 1944. The aircraft on which 2d Lt. Truemper was serving as navigator was attacked by a squadron of enemy fighters with the result that the copilot was killed outright, the pilot wounded and rendered unconscious, the radio operator wounded, and the plane severely damaged. Nevertheless, 2d Lt. Truemper and other members of his crew managed to right the plane and fly it back to their home station, where they contacted the control tower and reported the situation. Second Lt. Truemper and the engineer volunteered to attempt to land the plane. Other members of the crew were ordered to jump, leaving 2d Lt. Truemper and the engineer aboard. After observing the distressed aircraft from another plane, 2d Lt. Truemper's commanding officer decided the damaged plane could not be landed by the inexperienced crew and ordered them to abandon it and parachute to safety. Demonstrating unsurpassed courage and heroism, 2d Lt. Truemper and the engineer replied that the pilot was still alive but could not be moved and that they would not desert him. They were then told to attempt a landing. After two unsuccessful efforts their plane crashed into an open field in a third attempt to land. Second Lt. Truemper, the engineer, and the wounded pilot were killed.
Archibald Mathies
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy in connection with a bombing mission over enemy-occupied Europe on 20 February 1944. The aircraft on which Sgt. Mathies was serving as engineer and ball turret gunner was attacked by a squadron of enemy fighters with the result that the copilot was killed outright, the pilot wounded and rendered unconscious, the radio operator wounded, and the plane severely damaged. Nevertheless, Sgt. Mathies and other members of the crew managed to right the plane and fly it back to their home station, where they contacted the control tower and reported the situation. Sgt. Mathies and the navigator volunteered to attempt to land the plane. Other members of the crew were ordered to jump, leaving Sgt. Mathies and the navigator aboard. After observing the distressed aircraft from another plane, Sgt. Mathies' commanding officer decided the damaged plane could not be landed by the inexperienced crew and ordered them to abandon it and parachute to safety. Demonstrating unsurpassed courage and heroism, Sgt. Mathies and the navigator replied that the pilot was still alive but could not be moved and they would not desert him. They were then told to attempt a landing. After two unsuccessful efforts, the plane crashed into an open field in a third attempt to land. Sgt. Mathies, the navigator, and the wounded pilot were killed.
Lt. William R. Lawley Jr. wouldn't abandon his crewmen, but managed to come out of it alive.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty, 20 February 1944, while serving as pilot of a B-17 aircraft on a heavy bombardment mission over enemy-occupied continental Europe. Coming off the target he was attacked by approximately 20 enemy fighters, shot out of formation, and his plane severely crippled. Eight crewmembers were wounded, the copilot was killed by a 20-mm. shell. One engine was on fire, the controls shot away, and 1st Lt. Lawley seriously and painfully wounded about the face. Forcing the copilot's body off the controls, he brought the plane out of a steep dive, flying with his left hand only. Blood covered the instruments and windshield and visibility was impossible. With a full bomb load the plane was difficult to maneuver and bombs could not be released because the racks were frozen. After the order to bail out had been given, 1 of the waist gunners informed the pilot that 2 crewmembers were so severely wounded that it would be impossible for them to bail out. With the fire in the engine spreading, the danger of an explosion was imminent. Because of the helpless condition of his wounded crewmembers 1st Lt. Lawley elected to remain with the ship and bring them to safety if it was humanly possible, giving the other crewmembers the option of bailing out. Enemy fighters again attacked but by using masterful evasive action he managed to lose them. One engine again caught on fire and was extinguished by skillful flying. 1st Lt. Lawley remained at his post, refusing first aid until he collapsed from sheer exhaustion caused by loss of blood, shock, and the energy he had expended in keeping control of his plane. He was revived by the bombardier and again took over the controls. Coming over the English coast 1 engine ran out of gasoline and had to be feathered. Another engine started to burn and continued to do so until a successful crash landing was made on a small fighter base. Through his heroism and exceptional flying skill, 1st Lt. Lawley rendered outstanding distinguished and valorous service to our Nation.
He died in 1999 at age 78.
Rommel completed a four-day inspection of the Atlantic Wall.
The Norwegian steam powered railroad ferry SF Hydro was sunk by the Norwegian resistance as part of its efforts against heavy water.
The U.S. Navy's Task Group 58.1 attacked targets in Jaluit Atoll.
The Red Army launched a new offensive on the 2nd Baltic Front.
Beria arrived to Grozny to supervise the deportation of the Chechens.
A modified B-29 Superfortress arrived at Muroc Air Field, California, from Wright Army Air Field to conduct ballistic tests on concrete-filled atomic bomb casings in order to evaluate their aerodynamic characteristics.
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In the Apple TV series Masters of the Air, one of the characters is Maj. Gale "Buck" Cleven, who reports himself as being from Casper twice in the first episode.
Who was he, and was he really from Casper?
Clevens was born in Lemmon, South Dakota, on December 27, 1918, just after the end of World War One. His family moved to Casper when he was still a child, although I'm not certain when, as they moved first to Lusk, in 1920. He likely was a 1937 graduate from Natrona County High School, the only high school in Casper at the time (Natrona County had a second one in Midwest). Following graduating from high school, he attended the University of Wyoming while also working on drilling crews as a roughneck.
He did, in fact, move at some point to Casper, where he was employed as a roughneck on drilling crews. He used the money he earned to attend the University of Wyoming and was enrolled by the fall of 1937, presumably right after high school. His name appears in the social pages of The Branding Iron as having had a date attend the men's residence hall October dance. He was a guest of a different young lady at the 1939 Tri Delts Halloween sorority dance. The same year he was apparently in a fraternity, as he's noted as having attended the Phi Delta Theta dance with, yes, another young lady. In February 1939 he went to a fraternity dance with Nova Carter, whom I believe I'm related to by marriage. A year later, February 1940, he took a different gal to the same dance.
He left UW in 1941 to join the Army, intent on being a pilot. The October 21, 1943, edition of the UW Student Newspaper, The Branding Iron, notes him (inaccurately) as being stationed in North Africa and having received the Distinguished Service Cross, which he in fact did receive for piloting his badly stricken plane from Schweinfurt to North Africa, the flight path taken on that raid. This even is depicted in Masters of the Air. The Branding Iron noted that he had attended UW for three years. In June, 1944, the student newspaper reported him a POW. He's noted again for a second decoration in the March 2, 1944, edition, which also notes that he was a Prisoner of War.
As depicted in Masters of the Air, his B-17 was in fact shot down over Germany. He ended up becoming a POW, as reported in the UW paper, at Stalag Luft III for 18 months, after which he escaped and made it to Allied lines. He was put back in the cockpit after the war flying troops back to the United States.
Following the war, he was back at the University of Wyoming. He graduated from UW with a bachelor's in 1946. He apparently reentered the Air Force after that, or was recalled into service, and served in the Korean War, leaving the Air Force around that time.
He was on the Winter Quarter 1954 UW Honor Roll and obtained a Masters Degree, probably in geology, from UW in 1956. Somewhere in here, he obtained a MBA degree from Harvard and an interplanetary physics doctorate from George Washington University.
He married immediately after the war in 1945 to Marjorie Ruth Spencer, who was originally from Lander Wyoming. They had known each other since childhood. She tragically passed away in 1953 while visiting her parents, while due to join Gale at Morton Air Force Base in California. Polio was the cause of her death, and unusually her headstone, in Texas, bears her maiden name. Reportedly, her death threw Cleven into a deep depression. He married again in 1955, to Esther Lee Athey.
His post-war career is hard to follow. He flew again during the Korean War, as noted, which would explain the gap between his bachelors and master’s degrees, and probably his doctorate. He's noted as having served again during the Vietnam War, and also has having held a post at the Pentagon. He was in charge of EDP information at Hughes Aircraft. Given all of that, it's hard to know if an intended career in geology ever materialized, or if his World War Two service ended up essentially dominating the remainder of his career in the form of military service. The interplanetary physics degree would and employment by Hughes would suggest the latter. His highest held rank in the Air Force was Colonel.
Following retirement, he lived in Dickenson, North Dakota, and then later at the Sugarland Retirement Center in Sheridan. He died at age 86 in 2006, and is buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his marker noting service in three wars.
I was leading squadron in leader position of red flight, providing escort and target support for bombers with targets at Oschersleben and Halberstadt. 2nd Lt. Wau Kau Kong was my wingman. Enroute to target area, Northeim and Wernigerode, at 1350 hours I attacked a ME-410 which was pressing attack on a straggling B-17 at 16,000 feet. I fired a long burst from 300 yds, observing parts flying off the tail assembly and smoke pouring out of the right engine. All my guns stopped except one and I broke off attack to let my wingman finish off E/A. I circled and saw Lt. Kong fire at E/A from close range. The right engine of E/A burst into flames. As Lt. Kong broke off over the E/A the rear gunner must have hit him as his plane exploded and disintegrated in the air.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—February 11, 1944: First mission of the US 357th Fighter Group in P-51 Mustangs from England—this group would produce the most aces (42) in the US Eighth Air Force.
The U-424 was sunk off the Faroe's by a Wellington piloted by the RCAF.
While by this point, this story is now confusing because of predecessor organizations, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were officially formed.
Major Joseph Duckworth, together with Lt. Ralph O'Hair, of the U.S. Army Air Force flew an AT-6 into the eye of a hurricane, becoming the first people to do so on purpose.
Duckworth was an advocate for training on instruments. He had been an Army Air Corps flyer, originally starting in 1927, and recalled to service during World War Two.
The hurricane bore the name The Surprise Hurricane due to weather censoring during World War Two, which the storm would end due to killing 19 people and causing $17,000,000 in damage.
Croatia became a republic, for a time, after Prince Aimone, the Duke of Astsoria, who had been made king of Croatia by Mussolini, resigned, deciding that desertion was the better part of valor.
The Fascist Grand Council and the Fascist Party were abolished.
Sarah Sundin notes, on her blog:
Today in World War II History—July 27, 1943: Flight nurse Lt. Ruth Gardiner (805th MAETS) is killed in a plane crash in Naknek, Alaska; the first US Army nurse to die in WWII.
She also notes the horrific Hamburg firestorm of the night of July 27, 1943, which resulted from the RAF's Operation Gomorrah bombing raid that evening.
This is a new memorial in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, dedicated to the crew of the "Casper Kid", a B-17F that went down in what would have been an incredibly remote lonely spot on February 25, 1943.
In recent years, there's been a dedicated effort in Central Wyoming to memorialize the crews who did in aviation accidents during the Second World War. This is the second such memorial I'm aware of (there may be more) which is dedicated to the crew of an airplane that was flying out of the Casper Air Base, which is now the Natrona County International Airport. Both accidents memorialized so far were winter accidents which resulted in the loss of an aircraft in remote country.
We don't tend to think of those lost in training accidents as war dead, but they were. And there are a lot of them.
Maugham was from Logan Utah and joined the Army as a pilot during World War One. His career would span through World War Two.
The Pointblank Directive was issued by the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff directing the implementation of Operation Pointblank, the round the clock Allied bomber offensive over Europe. The order prioritized targets for the combined Allied air forces, starting with the German aircraft industry.
The order met with passive resistance from RAF's fighter command, which refused to provide escorts to the U.S. Army Air Force during the daylight, citing the inability to convert fighters for long ranges. This would lead the US to study the conversion of P-51 Mustangs to that use. It would also lead to considerable tension between the US and the UK on the topic of daylight escorts.
Sarah Sundin noted Pointblank on her blog:
Today in World War II History—June 10, 1943: US & UK begin Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany; priorities for bombing targets are submarine yards, aircraft & ball bearings factories, and oil targets
Paul Newman, having enlisted days before his 18th birthday, was called up for service in the Navy.
Newman wanted to be a pilot, but was taken out of flight school when it was discovered he was color blind. He went on to be a torpedo bomber crewman.
Sarah Sundin noted Newman's enlistment, but also noted the A36:
Today in World War II History—June 6, 1943: North American A-36 Apache flies first combat mission in a US Twelfth Air Force mission to Pantelleria. Future actor Paul Newman enlists in the US Navy, age 18.
We don't think much of the A-36, the dive bomber version of the P-51. The odd aircraft only came into existence in the first place as the 1942 appropriations for new fighter aircraft had run out and converting the assembly line to dive bombers kept the P-51 line open. Only 500 were built, with most used by the U.S. Army Air Force, but some used by the RAF.
Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews, for whom Andrews Air Force Base is named, died in the crash of the B-24 Hot Stuff in Iceland, when it went down in bad weather.
He had been on an inspection tour in the United Kingdom.
Only the plane's tail gunner, SSgt George A. Eisel, survived the crash. Eisel had survived a previous B-24 crash in North Africa. He'd live until 1964 when he died at age 64. Married prior to the war, he and his wife never had any children.
Hot Stuff was the first B-24D to complete 25 missions, well before, it might be noted, the B-17 Memphis Belle did the same. Hardly anyone recalls Hot Stuff, as the Army went on to emphasize the Memphis Belle following the crash of Hot Stuff and the death of all but one of its crew. Of note, Hot Suff, predictably, had a much more salacious example of nose art than Memphis Belle, and it's interesting to speculate how the Army would have handled that had the plane been popularized. At any rate, the story that Memphis Belle was the first US bomber to complete 25 missions is a complete myth.
Andrews was the CO of the ETO at the time of this death. A West Point Graduate from the class of 1906, he had been in the cavalry branch from 1906 to 1917, when he was assigned to aviation over the objection of his commander. A prior objection had prevented his reassignment in 1914.
U.S. Army Air Service pilots Lt. John A. Macready and Lt. Oakley G. Kelly commenced the first nonstop North American transcontinental flight on this day in 1923. Their flight in a Fokker T-2 took them from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Rockwell Field, San Diego in 27 hours with much of the nighttime flight through storms in uncertain territory.
McCready, who had joined the Army in 1917, held a string of early aviation records but left the service in 1926 and became the head of the Aviation department of Shell Oil. He reentered the Air Force in 1942 and held several combat commands, leaving again in 1948. He died in 1969 at age 91, an accomplishment in and of itself given that he was an early record-breaking aviator.
He is the only three time recipient of the Mackay Trophy.
Oalkey G. Kelley had a long flying career as well. He also retired in 1948, passing away at age 74 in 1966. Both men retired to California, although McCready was from there.
Russo Ukrainian War
A Russian Su-27 caused an American drone to crash in the Black Sea yesterday. The two aircraft may have collided.
Russia, which tends to be as dense as a box of rocks about the capabilities of Western equipment, lied and said the drone just suddenly veered off and fell in the sea, apparently wholly unaware that the drone photographed the SU-27 and we'd have the film footage.
D'uh.
Russia is trying to recover the drone presently.
An interesting aspect of this is the release of jet fuel by the Su-27 near the drone. It may be just me, but I'd fear that the drone's engine would ignite the fuel and send the Su-27 up in a big ball of flame, but apparently not.
