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Lt. Harold Korger flew as navigator on the B-24D bomber # 41-11825, 'Hail Columbia" , on the mission to Ploesti, Romania, "Operation Tidal Wave" - 'Hail Columbia' was named and piloted by Col. John Riley "Killer" Kane and Lt. John S. Young from Dallas Texas. Four .50 cal. fixed nose guns, visible in this photo, were added to the lower front nose for the Ploesti Mission to be able to strafe the German flak guns, as they were bombing the Romanian oil refineries. 'Hail Columbia' and all the crew members, including Lt. Korger, survived the Ploesti mission with no serious injuries. Knowing they could not return to their base at Benghazi, Libya, with their aircraft heavily damaged by German anti aircraft flak guns over their target, the Astra Romano Refinery complex, they decided to try to fly to the island of Cyprus, and crash landed on the British air base at Nicosia, Cyprus, August 1, 1943. 'Hail Columbia' was wrecked and written off at Nicosia, Cyprus, August, 3,1943.

Connections

Units

  • 9th Air Force

    9th Air Force

  • 98th Bomb Group

    98th Bomb Group

    Group
    The 98th trained for bombardment missions with B-24 Liberators during the first half of 1942. ...

  • 344th Bomb Squadron

    344th Bomb Squadron

    Squadron
    The 344th Bombing Squadron was first activated at MacDill Field, Florida as one of the original three squadrons assigned to the 98th Bombardment Group. The 344th soon moved to Barksdale Field, Louisiana, where it began to train as a Consolidated B-24...

Aircraft

  • 41-11825 'Hail Columbia' 'Grumpy' 'Little Chief Big Dog'

    B-24 Liberator
    The B-24D, 'Hail Columbia', # 41-11825, originally served in the 9th Air Force, the 98th Bomb Group, and the 344th Bombing Squadron. It was, first, the 344th Squadron's CO, Col. John R. Kane's, personal aircraft until Kane became the 98th Bomb Group's...

Locations

  • Lete

    Military site : airfield

Edit entry 

Collection name
John Simmons Young Collection
Object number
UPL 39169

Revisions

Date Contributor Update
23 February 2021 08:44:41 general ira snapsorter Changes to person associations and mission associations
Sources

Removed associations not depicted in the image. Associated content should be added to the AIRCRAFT and/or PERSON records.
Date Contributor Update
23 February 2021 06:52:00 Kickapoo Changes to caption, person associations and mission associations
Sources

Black Sunday - Michael Hill ----- Personal Archives - John S Young Jr
Date Contributor Update
10 January 2021 18:06:42 general ira snapsorter Changes to person associations, aircraft associations and mission associations
Sources

Removed associations not depicted in the image. Associated content should be added to the AIRCRAFT and/or PERSON records.
Date Contributor Update
10 January 2021 18:01:44 Kickapoo Changes to caption
Sources

Black Sunday - Michael Hill ---- Personal Archives - John S Young Jr
Date Contributor Update
10 January 2021 17:49:51 Kickapoo Changes to person associations
Sources

Black Sunday - Michael Hill ---- Personal Archives - John S Young Jr
Date Contributor Update
10 January 2021 16:30:31 Kickapoo Changes to caption, person associations, aircraft associations and mission associations
Sources

Personal Archives - John S Young Jr
Date Contributor Update
15 December 2020 14:38:10 general ira snapsorter Changes to person associations and mission associations
Sources

Removed associations not depicted in the image. Associated content should be added to the AIRCRAFT and/or PERSON records.
Date Contributor Update
15 December 2020 10:45:24 Kickapoo Changes to collection, caption, unit associations, person associations, place associations and mission associations
Sources

John S Young Jr - personal archives
Date Contributor Update
10 July 2019 10:17:46 general ira snapsorter Changes to person associations, aircraft associations and mission associations
Sources

Removed associations not depicted in image.
Date Contributor Update
07 July 2019 20:36:08 Kickapoo Created entry with collection, caption, unit associations, person associations, place associations, aircraft associations and mission associations
Sources

Anatomy Of A Disaster - Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg ---- Black Sunday - Michael Hill ---- Into The Fire - Duane Schultz ---- TogetherWeServed.com ---- FindAGrave.com ---- Personal Archives - John S. Young

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