Een Consolidated 'B-24 Liberator' van de USAAF, bommenwerper en zeeverkenner, wordt tijdens een missie om Blechhammer te...

Een Consolidated 'B-24 Liberator' van de USAAF, bommenwerper en zeeverkenner, wordt tijdens een missie om Blechhammer te bombarderen, geraakt door Duitse Flak. Vijf bemanningsleden wisten zich per parachute in veiligheid te brengen. De andere zes kwamen om. Het originele bijschrift luidt: 'Liberator hit by Flak over Germany. Clouds of smoke trail from a Liberator bomber of the 15th U.S. Air Force and bombs spill from its bays after the plane was hit in a heavy flak belt during its bom run over Blechhammer, Germany. Another Liberator proceeds ahead. Recently predicting the success of new cloud-bombing techniques, Lieutenant General Ira C. Baker, Commander of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces said: 'German targets are due for the greatest weight of bombardment they have ever received, and Winter weather will not protect them'. He described Ploesti as 'the bloodiest air battlefield of the war,' where U.S. losses were 350 bombers and more than 1,400 flyers. But, he said, 'it was woth the cost'. When the Ploesti attacks started, the Germans were getting 25,000 tons of petroleum products daily from there. When the attacks ended, production had been cut to 3,505 tons daily.'