Rank: Staff Sergeant

Last Name: Malone

First Name: Hugh

Middle Name: J.

Service Number: 15062923

Unit: 66th Bombardment Squadron, 44th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Forces

Plane: B-24D Liberator, SN: 42-40325; Nicknamed Scrappy II

Date of Death: August 1, 1943

MACR Number: 1646

Crew:

Pilot: 1st Lt. Thomas E. Scrivner

Co-Pilot 2nd Lt. Everett P. Anderson

Navigator 1st Lt. Philip Phillips

Bombardier 2nd Lt. Robert E. Young

Engineer TSgt. William F. Coll

Asst. Engineer Sgt. Thomas F. Schappert

Radioman TSgt. Channing N. Satterfield

Asst. Engineer Waist Gunner Sgt. Marvin R. Mickey

Tail Gunner SSgt. Hugh J. Malone

On August 1, 1943, the 44th, 93rd, 98th, 376th and 398th Bomb Groups departed Benghazi, Libya for a mission codenamed Operation Tidal Wave with the objective to bomb the Romania oil refineries in Ploesti. Historians cite the mission as the most intensively prepared and experienced ever flown in aerial warfare.

For Hitler’s massive forces, Romania was a valued ally. Governed by Marshal Ion Antonescu, the country was among the world’s largest producers, eventually supplying almost 60 percent of the Third Reich’s thirsty crude oil needs. The Fuhrer’s precious black gold was guarded by 300 flak guns, hundreds of machine guns, a deadly flak train, concealed emplacements, 120 German fighters and 200 Romanian Air Force fighters.

Staff Sergeant Hugh J. Malone was born in 1922 in Pennsylvania. There is no record of him other than that of his enlistment into the US Army Air Forces on June 12, 1941 at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Marion County, Indiana. He achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant and served on the Scrappy II as the Tail Gunner.

Initially, he would have shown up at the induction center where he was issued his serial number and received his dog tags. He was then transported to the reception center. Upon arrival Hugh would have gone through several medical and psychological tests then sat through the Army General Classification Test, a 150-question quiz which score would determine his initial military occupational specialty. A score of 115 would qualify Bill for Non-commissioned Officer training. He was issued his first uniform and told to pack up his personal belongings, including the clothes he had arrived in; all to be shipped home.

Having been sorted to join the Army Air Forces, Hugh would have been given a cash allotment and told where to report for basic training. That would last for about thirteen weeks. During those weeks Hugh would have undergone further testing and, upon completion, he was sent to the Gunnery Training centers at Harlingen, Texas for aerial gunner’s school which would take another three months or so.

To begin their training gunners were handed a shotgun and had to practice skeet shooting. After they proved their proficiency at various angles, they started shooting live rounds from a model aircraft turret. Later he would be occupied by a driverless jeep running on a track that had a life-size model of a plane rigged up on it. Gunner trainees fired their 50-cal at it. The crew depended upon the gunner to help keep them safe on missions. It was his job to know the ammunition as well as how to operate – and fix – the planes guns. No gunner passed out of training unless he could knock down his gun and reassemble it blindfolded. He needed to be able to tell friend from foe and most of all, to be a good shot. Most training centers were in the south or the desert west, where the weather was reliable.

At the Libyan air bases, the food was terrible. Men often wrote home about buying eggs and beans, getting one beer per week and the “music” that fills the 6-man tents at night. Maintaining the planes was also very difficult due to desert dust and blowing sand. Everything mechanical had to be broken down and oiled constantly and that still didn’t guarantee that their planes were in perfect shape when they flew them.

Organizers for the raid on Ploiesti knew that it was a highly dangerous mission. The 93rd Bombardment Group “Flying Circus”, the 376th Bombardment Group “Liberandos”, the 98th Bombardment Group “Pyramidiers”, the 44th Bombardment Group “Flying Eight Balls”, and the 389th Bombardment Group “Sky Scorpions” were all assigned to the mission. On July 24, officers were informed of the target. By July 28th, when the battle order was issued, everyone knew. They had also been told that 50% losses were expected. By July 31st, letters to “loved ones were written and set aside to be mailed if the men didn’t come back. Affairs were put in order as these now-seasoned combat crews met with chaplains and friends, maybe for the last time.” Due to previous mission losses as well as illnesses, crews that had flown missions together were not necessarily flying together this time. “Crew rosters were put together, and no one was allowed to go home, even if they had put in their 300 hours [their goal to reach for a ticket home] flying time.”

They were to cross the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea, pass near the island of Corfu, cross the Pindus Mountains in Albania, and cross the southern part of Yugoslavia to enter southwest Romania and turn east until they reached their target. They flew extremely low, in what seemed to be tree-top level, to avoid being detected by enemy radar.

On take-off in Libya, due to the dry land conditions and the five groups of the enormous strike force that were overloaded with the additional weight of fuel and the extra-large number of bombs, an enormous amount of dust was kicked up and caused one plane to abort takeoff with the other 177. For all the remaining, they positioned themselves in formation until one plane (Wongo Wongo) with the 376th Bombardment Group, in the lead group of about 40 B-24’s, started to fly erratically and crashed into the Adriatic Sea. One plane (#23 Desert Lily) left formation to look for survivors and narrowly missed crashing into another plane in the formation. Once the Desert Lily confirmed there were no survivors, she was unable to regain her altitude and was forced to return. Confusion and 10 other planes’ inability to work together to overcome the circumstances, and refrain from a radio silence order, resulted in 10 more planes returning to a safe airstrip for landing. The remaining continued their mission with difficulties. Unaware the Germans knew exactly where they were but not of what their targets were.

In the early afternoon of August 1, 1943, an armada of B-24 Liberators arrived at Ploiesti after a journey of 1,200 miles. Planned as a surprise attack under strict radio silence, five groups would drop their bombs from 200 to 800 feet, expecting an ensuing inferno. But German General Alfred Gerstenberg, who had cracked the Allied codes, knew they were coming.

As they approached Ploiesti in a loose formation, rather than the tight one they had practiced, with approximately 20 minutes of flying distance between them, all 5 groups made their navigational checkpoint. Soon, the 389th peeled off to arrive at their target, the next group unaware that their orders included a grave error in navigation, followed an incorrect railway line, resulting in the 93rd Bomb Group headed toward Bucharest. This error caused others to break radio silence to correct the error and get everyone back on track to their designated targets for the synchronized dropping of bombs at each of the nine targets.

As the remainder of the original 178 planes reached their targets, they did not expect the barrage of immediate and intense fighting from the overprotected oil refineries at Ploiesti by the waiting German and Romanian Air defenses and ground forces. Planes that were able to, dropped their bombs and destroyed their targets while being attacked, fired upon, and, sometimes, while crashing. One of the downed American planes crashed into a female prison resulting in the death of 100 civilians.

Of the 165 bombers that reached Ploiesti, only 88 aircraft returned, of which 54 were damaged significantly. Over 500 crewmen were lost from all causes, including 80 seriously wounded. One hundred eight airmen were taken prisoner in Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. In May 1944, Allied aviators based in Italy bombed Ploiesti from high altitudes. The Soviets overran Romania’s refineries in August 1944, capturing General Gerstenberg and closing Hitler’s “gas station.”

According to his time in service, Staff Sergeant Malone would have received the Army Good Conduct Medal and was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart Medal, the American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the Army Presidential Unit Citation. Initially after the bombing Hugh was listed as MIA. However, based on reports by other crews that had survived the mission and seen the plane Hugh was on go down, this finding was quickly changed to FOD – Finding of Death; meaning that the most likely answer was that he had been killed and that there were few remains left to find. As part of the World War II Return of the Dead Program what remained of Hugh was repatriated to the United States. He was interred together with most of his crew members at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri in Section 84, Grave 195-197 on August 3, 1950 -very nearly seven years to the day of that fateful mission over Ploesti.

Due to the impossibility of tracing Hugh or his family, at this time it is unknown if he had any survivors.

“To the Fallen of Ploesti” by John Riley Kane, Colonel, USAF, (Ret.)

“To you who fly on forever, I send that part of me which cannot be separated and is bound to you for all time. I send to you those of our hopes and dreams that never quite came true, the joyous laughter and showery tears of our boyhood, the marvelous mysteries of our adolescence, the glorious strength and tragic illusions of our young manhood, all these that were and perhaps would have been, I leave in your care, out there in the Blue.”

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars Project (SBTS StoriesBehindTheStars.org) in partnership with MIA Recovery Network (miarecoverynetwork.com), Sons of Liberty sonsoflibertymuseum.org), and Army Air Corps Museum (armyaircorpsmuseum.org). SBTS is a national effort of volunteers to write stories about all 400,000+ U.S. WW II fallen service personnel on Together We Served and on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Stories will be accessible via smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen serviceperson’s name and read his/her story. If you have details, photos, or corrections for this story, please contact the project by clicking on the words “Added by:” at the bottom of this story.

References:

Carlson, Mark. Operation Tidal Wave: What Went Wrong with the U.S. Attack on Romania in WW II? Historynet.com/operation-tidal-wave. August 3, 2020.

Dugan, James and Carroll Stewart. Ploesti: The Great Ground-Air Battle of 1 August 1943, Revised Edition, Brassey's Aviation Classics, Brassey’s, Inc. Washington, D.C., 2002.

Find-a-Grave Link: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38793227/

https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/42-40563

https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive?fulltext=operation+tidal+wave

https://www.fold3.com/memorial/529882458/tim-o-mclaughlin

https://media.defense.gov/2016/May/18/2001540805/-1/-1/0/AFD-160518-001-011.PDF

https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/211265-operation-tidalwave/

“Missing Man’s Mother Receives His DFC,” 1943, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wisconsin, December 23.

U.S. Defense, POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Unaccounted for Remains, Group A, (Unrecoverable,) 1941-1975.

U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949.

U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.

Vandenberg, Hoyt S. Jr., Major General (USAF, Ret.) Ploesti: Anatomy of a Disaster, Armchair General, January 2013.

“Yanks Survive Suicide Raids on Axis Bases,” 1943, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wisconsin, April 3.

Thanks to Wolfmaniaus567 for details on the flight over the Med as well as the attack at Ploesti.

Story Date: July 26, 2023

Hugh J Malone