US Airmen Share a Little Known WWII Survival and Rescue Story

WTOL Toledo ^ | July 4, 2008 | Jennifer Boresz

[Bokababe]

There are two videos and some great photos on the website.

[Bokababe]

[originalbuckeye]

My dad was part of the Ploesti bombers. His plane was shot down, he parachuted to save his life and he was turned over to the Germans for the last year of the war. I always loved his Caterpillar Club pin when I was young. It was lost but a company in Britain can make a new one if you are interested. After my dad's death in 1996 I had a new one made and really love having it. For my dad's sake I wish he had been one of the lucky ones who were sheltered instead of having to be a POW. The aftereffects of his experience were lifelong.

[eleni121]

"They landed in German-occupied Serbia, but got help from Serbian resistance fighters led by General Draza Mihailovich, U.S. and British ally. "Those people had it pretty dog gone rough, and didn't have much to give. But they gave," Carl Walpusk of Moon Twp., Pennsylvania says."

A Hero for the ages and the world--never to be forgotten

[Gondring]

Thank you SO much for posting this. It’s a too-often forgotten and too-little known story.

Ploesti raid photos are amazing, and the stories astonishing. And the Tito/Mihailovich story just plain unspeakable.

[marron]

This is what happens when your government is riddled with communists.

[marktwain]

I can't help but wonder if it were the communists in the State Department that favored Tito. I don't know enough to tell, but I can not see a “realpolitic” reason to lie about what happened, unless it were to advance communism.

[TheWasteLand]

Thanks. I’d never heard this before.

[wendy1946]

There had to be allied airmen who parachuted into Albania, Croatia, and Bosnia. Have they ever found any of the bones or anything like that??

[Yorlik803]

FDR sold out the eastern countries. The left thinks he is a great hero, but all he was a Red Appeaser.

[yarddog]

Yep, I can remember Robert L. Scott saying he was ordered to not destroy bridges the Japanese were using in China because the Communists wanted them left.

I don't think FDR was a Commie but his administration had become infiltrated with them.

[antiunion person]

There are hundreds of rescue missions that are still classified. I took part in one after the Vietnam war and it didn't get declassified until the late 90’s. It was one of the proudest things I've ever done and I still get Christmas cards from some of the survivors my team went to liberate.
As far as the airman's story about the State Department backing Tito and how it was a mistake, it was and the State Department will never admit being wrong. Sounds like our government today. Pass the blame to some sacrificial lamb.

[sailor4321]

Actually, Mihailovich was collaborating with the Italians. It was Tito who was collaborating with the Germans. However, British SOE in Eqypt was “infiltrated” by communists who naturally favored the communist leader Tito. Hence the shift from support of Mihailovich to Tito.

[ElkGroveDan]

They say false information was given that he was a traitor and collaborating with the Germans. ..... Then they turned around and called him a collaborator simply to justify favoring Tito."

My guess would be FDR's Communist sympathizers at high levels of the State Department.

[sailor4321]

See #13 below. Source: “A World at Arms” by Gerhard L. Weinberg.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Their mission was to bomb a German oil field.

"We bombed Ploesti, so the Germans would be penalized for their lack of gasoline. But we paid one terrible price for that because the Germans knew what altitude we would come in," says Arthur "Jibby" Jibilian from Fremont. "They knew the formation we would come in. They had us zeroed in perfectly, and we were like sitting ducks."

Lose lips sink ships, someone must have leaked the plans of this operation to the Germans... sounds like something the NEW YORK TIMES would do.

[Wolfstar]

I don't think FDR was a Commie but his administration had become infiltrated with them.

Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965) was an avowed communist. He served as VP under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941-1945.

[sport]

Backing communist is par for the State Department course.

[Eagles6]

"I can't help but wonder if it were the communists in the State Department that favored Tito."

Give the man a cigar! You nailed it.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I wish they would make a movie worthy of this story.
Make a true and accurate TV movie or theater release of this.... sort of like Saving Private Ryan with NO political correctness in it at all.