Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Vanderbilt

#1

OneManGang

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#1
Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Vanderbilt

I hate to admit it, but I bailed on the Vols Saturday. Elder Son&Heir and I stood it as long as we could. But, when that second rain delay hit, we were cold, we were wet, and we were miserable. I could actually feel him shivering in the seat next to me – and we were under cover! At that point I decided it was time. Figuring that there was no way Tennessee could screw up with an eighteen-point lead and seven minutes left … we fled.

Happily, Our Beloved Vols kept up the pressure and sloshed away with a much-needed win to cap off one of the greatest come back seasons in Tennessee history.

Well done, lads! Well done!

* * * * * * * * *

The crippled bomber closed in on the British airfield at Nicosia, Cyprus after dark on 1 August 1943. The evocatively named B-24D “Hail Columbia” now lined up on the runway. One engine was out and another had 4 inches of one propeller tip shot away and bullet holes in one of the other blades. Wind whistled through bullet and shrapnel holes. The B-24’s tan desert paint, faded to a dull pink by the desert sun, was blackened with soot and smoke stains from the target. “Hail Columbia’s” touched down but her main gear caught a ditch and snapped off. The impact caused the nose of the bomber to pitch down and the pilots pulled back on the control columns with all their might. Finally the tail settled and the plane skidded down the runway more or less upright. Finally, the slab-sided B-24 slewed to a stop facing backwards. The pilots switched off the engines and the co-pilot exited through the escape hatch in the cockpit roof. The pilot, Col. John R. “Killer” Kane, CO of the 98th Bomb Group (H) got out of his seat for the first time in over twelve hours to follow him and promptly fell back down. He made it on the second attempt and emerged to find the other nine crew members stretched out on the runway unashamedly embracing the sand and kissing the ground. “Hail Columbia” would never fly again, but Killer Kane had brought his men home.

In a war that featured many rough missions, this was one of the roughest.

There were a group of oil refineries around the small Romanian town of Ploesti, about fifty miles south of Bucharest. Estimates were that as much as 60% of Hitler’s fuel came from Ploesti. Thus, Ploesti was heavily defended by FLAK (anti-aircraft guns) and fighters of the Luftwaffe and the Romanian Air Force.

General Hap Arnold needed a way to take out Ploesti from the air. It was decided to make a low-level attack using the B-24s of five heavy bomb groups. The operation was code-named TIDAL WAVE.

At 0200 on 1 August 1943, 1762 American airmen filed into briefing tents at seven air bases in the vicinity of Benghazi, Libya. The more astute of them had already figured out what was up as the five bomb groups had been relentlessly practicing for a special low-level mission for several weeks. Everyone knew Ploesti’s reputation and few doubted this would be a “rough one.”

178 B-24D Liberators started their engines and with shrieking brakes and protesting landing gear moved ponderously into take-off order. Each plane also had an extra 800 gallon fuel tank fitted in the bomb bay for extra range.

The bombers belonged to the 44th Bomb Group (H) nicknamed the “Eight Balls” under the command of Col. Leon Johnson; the 93rd BG was the “Traveling Circus” led by Lt. Col. Addison Baker; “Killer” Kane was boss of the “Pyramiders” known officially as the 98th BG; the lead group was the 376th BG “Liberandos” under Col. K.K. Compton and finally the relatively new 389th BG “Sky Scorpions” under Col. Jack Wood.

The pilots of the lead planes shoved the throttles all the way forward and roared into the sky. The rest of the force lifted off at two minute intervals, the spacing designed to let the sandstorm kicked up by the previous plane abate somewhat.

One bomber of the 376th snagged a concrete telephone pole as it took off and crashed and burned. Two men escaped.

The remaining 177 B-24s formed up and set course for Corfu. Along the 500-mile path to Corfu, ten planes turned back due to engine troubles or other mechanical failures.

Lead plane for the 376th was Brian “Wooley” Flavell’s plane, “Wingo-Wango.” No one will ever know what went wrong, but “Wingo Wango” suddenly pitched over and plunged into the sea. Wooley Flavell’s 4-month old son would never know his dad. 165 B-24s now pressed on. German observers on Corfu quickly relayed the news that the bombers had turned toward Romania.

Once past the coast, the bombers descended to their strike altitude, no plane was over 300 feet above ground level. At that height the margin for error was exactly zero. Unfortunately, Col. Compton in “Teggie Ann” became confused and executed the final turn early. Addison Baker in “Hell's Wench” maintained formation with Compton and the two groups were now headed not to Ploesti but toward Bucharest … and the biggest concentration of FLAK guns in Europe.

Finally, the formation turned around and headed to Ploesti but from the wrong direction. Briefed targets no longer meant anything and the bombers bored in on two targets already scheduled for Kane’s Pyramiders and Johnson’s Eight Balls.

As they came in on the bomb run, “Hell’s Wench” took hit after hit. One wing was a sheet of flame but Addison Baker, in the co-pilot’s seat, and pilot John Jerstadt were determined to lead the Traveling Circus in. Afire and out of control “Hell’s Wench” crashed into the refinery and took Baker, Jerstadt and the rest of the crew with her.

Kane’s Pyramiders and Johnson’s Eight Balls found themselves following the railroad to Ploesti just as briefed with Kane on the east and Johnson on the west. On that track was a “FLAK train” pulling railcars bristling with light and heavy guns. The gun crews opened up as the two groups thundered by on either side. FLAK crews and B-24 gunners dueled and won – or died - at their weapons. B-24s cartwheeled into the ground on either side of the train until finally the B-24s shot the locomotive full of holes. Then Luftwaffe fighters found the bombers and contributed their own deadly efficiency to the carnage of TIDAL WAVE.

Forty-one B-24s followed Killer Kane into Ploesti. Nineteen came out the other side.

Johnson and Kane both went on to hit their assigned targets, already flaming from the earlier visits by Compton and Baker. Adding to the threat of exploding oil tanks was the fact that the bombers were dropping bombs with delayed-action fuses to give the planes time to get away before the explosions. Now these bombs were exploding underneath the Liberandos and Pyramiders adding to what one pilot later described as a “tunnel of fire.”

In the 389th, Lt. Lloyd “Pete” Hughes' B-24 took a hit in the bomb bay that ripped a hole in the 800 gallon fuel tank. Trialing a sheet of fire, Hughes maintained his heading and his bombs hit the target squarely. He then made for a dry river bed nearby to try to crash-land. His wingtip caught the riverbank and the B-24 cartwheeled in spreading flame and wreckage. Two of Hughes’ gunners survived.

A grand total of 54 B-24s were lost during TIDAL WAVE. Of the 109 that returned only about thirty were still flyable. 310 airmen were Killed in Action, 74 wounded and over 100 were POW’s. By any reckoning it was a Pyrrhic victory, if victory at all.

The plants around Ploesti were only running at about 60% of capacity when TIDAL WAVE struck. Ploesti was back to pre-strike production in a matter of a few weeks.

The bombers would come again … and again … and again. By the end of the war over 400 American heavy bombers had been shot down trying to knock out the refineries.

Production never ceased until Soviet ground forces occupied the place in early 1945.

A grim measure of the savagery of TIDAL WAVE can be found in one statistic. Five Medals of Honor were awarded in this action, more than for any other single mission in Air Force history. The medals went to survivors John Kane and Leon Johnson, and posthumously to Addison Baker, John Jerstadt and Lloyd “Pete” Hughes.

They sure as Hell earned them.

*********​

So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?

1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.

'Andy knew that the Vols had struggled to run the ball of late and toiled to throttle Jarrett Guarantano and the Vol receivers. 297 net rushing yards later including a sparkling 94-yard touchdown scamper by Eric Gray proved the 'Dores had chosen poorly.

2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!

Other than Eric Gray, Tennessee didn't do anything particularly spectacular except to make plays when needed – which is noteworthy in and of itself.

3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don’t let up … PUT ON MORE STEAM!

'Andy took their initial possession and marched down the field to kick a field goal and go up 3-0. Given the conditions of the day, that score stood for a 9-minute eternity until Eric Gray broke loose for a 56-yard TD run. The Vols never looked back and Vandy never looked up.

4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.

ZERO sacks allowed by the Vol offensive line. Out-freaking-standing, boys! And then, what more can one say about the defense? Stellar game around for them.

5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.

The Vol defense proved itself more than up to the task of throttling 'Andy and held the Black and Gold (or, if you prefer just B&G) interlopers to 279 yards of total offense and a meaningless touchdown in the fourth canto which was immediately answered by a Vol drive capped by … Guess Who … with a 4-yard touchdown run.

6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.

All-in-all, this writer thought the Vol kickers did a pretty good job considering that kicking a wet football is akin to kicking a 3lb bag of wet cement. The Vol coverage teams held 'Andy to about 50 return yards total, however, the Vol return teams got skunked. There is work to be done here.

7. Carry the fight to Vanderbilt and keep it there for sixty minutes.

Tennessee found itself back in Days of Old when 'Andy could absolutely suck the rest of the season but a victory against the Vols would make it a successful season. This was their Bowl Game.

The Vols will know come Sunday, the 8th, whence they will be bowling. One thing more needs to be said, though. As your Humble Scribe has oft said this year, most of us fans just wanted to see improvement over last year.

We did.

MAXOMG

© 2019 Keeping Your Stories Alive

Suggested Reading:

Steve Birdsall, Log of the Liberators

James Dugan & Carroll Stewart, Ploesti

Edward Jablonski, AirWar: Tragic Victories

Where do we get such men? Col. Kane's Pyramiders fly into Hell. A B-24 crashes in the backgound. (US Air Force)

pyramiders hi-res.JPG
 
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#2
#2
I apologize to all for the tardiness of this report. By the time the game was done, Yours Truly was wiped out from the frenetic week at work leading up to Thursday, prepping the family dinner and then going to the game in marginal conditions. Short story - I was tired. Then I spent most of the intervening week dealing with the remnants of a HUGE tree that blew down in my yard last summer and, after a lot of cutting, is still there in the form of a 50-foot log that, even on its side, is taller than my SUV. If anyone out there needs a LOT of firewood and has a big chain saw, let me know!

There are days when I feel like this:

Veteran%20%28Amercican%20War%29.jpg
 
#4
#4
Per OneManGang, “AS your Humble Scribe has oft said here this year, most of us fans just wanted to see improvement over last year.

We did.”

Amen. Let’s recognize this achievement. Turning any program around is a momentous job. We are not there yet, but there are very good signs that the ship is starting to turn. I really think we have the right guy at the wheel!
 
#7
#7
Thanks OneMangang, Nice reads all year! We also left at the 2nd delay. It was damp, cold and looking at the weather radar it looked like 10pm before the storms would clear. If we had known that they would start back in 30 mins we would have stayed. My wife who stayed home said the tv channel promptly posted the projected game restart time, it would have been nice if Neyland stadium would have posted this same info.
 
#8
#8
I was beginning to think the West End Yacht Club had kidnapped you and were performing various acts of torture to make you write for their little propaganda forum. Glad to see it was nothing quite so dire. Thanks for your writings.
A) We did see improvement.
B) Where did we get such men? Heaven loaned them to us for such a horrific time.
Good Day.
 
#11
#11
Thanks once again OMG. great read. One thing I noted was that the USAF actually didn't come into existence until 1950 prior to that it was the Army Air Corp if I am not mistaken. So wouldn't the Medals of Honor awarded still be attributed to the Army?
 
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#13
#13
You guys DO realize that in 1947 everything that had ever belonged to the USAAC/USAAF: pictures, accounts, descriptions, records, planes, jeeps, machine guns, socks, belt buckles, blankets, bases, grease guns, my Uncle Bob, etc. became sole property of the USAF. So, yes, the 5 MoHs from Ploesti are part of USAF history.

Should the Vols not count football victories from their pre-conference and Southern Conference days?
 
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#14
#14
You guys DO realize that in 1947 everything that had ever belonged to the USAAC/USAAF: pictures, accounts, descriptions, records, planes, jeeps machine guns, socks, belt buckles, blankets, bases, grease guns, my Uncle Bob, etc. became sole property of the USAF. So, yes, the 5 MoHs from Ploesti are part of USAF history.

Should the Vols not count football victories from their pre-conference and Southern Conference days?
Okay okay. I should know better than to question you.
 
#16
#16
True. As the War went on, the US Army Air Corps (later US Army Air Force) began to lose its Army identification. They were basically Army in name only. Hap Arnold, boss of the USAAF, was determined to make it an independent and co-equal branch of the military. Indeed, he had a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff along with Marshall and CNO Ernie King during the war, the Commandant of the Marine Corps did not. The first Chairman was Adm. Frank Leahy who was FDR's Chief of Staff.
 
#17
#17
There's a dust mote in my eye...

My father flew with the 376th, the Liberandos. At some point (late '44, early '45 - I'll have to look it up), my father's crew and others were transferred to the 451st. Still others were transferred stateside to train to fly B29s.

My father did not fly in the historic raid of which you wrote. He did fly 23 strategic missions and 40-something sorties before Germany's defeat. Though 5 bombers in which they flew were unserviceable at the end of their missions, the entire crew of ten survived the war. For B24 crews of the 376th and 451st, this was lucky.

Thank you for ending the regular season with a post about them, OMG.
 
#18
#18
Coda: In 1926, the US Army Air Services became the US Army Air Corps. In June 1941, the US Army Air Corps became the US Army Air Forces, gaining greater autonomy from mid-level Army command. In 1947, the USAAF and the remnants of the Air Corps were incorporated into the newly independent branch, the US Air Force.
 
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#19
#19
Coda: In 1926, the US Army Air Services became the US Army Air Corps. In June 1941, the US Army Air Corps became the US Army Air Forces, gaining greater autonomy from mid-level Army command. In 1947, the USAAF and the remnants of the Air Corps were incorporated into the newly independent branch, the US Air Force.

And before that was part of the US Army Signal Corps until 1918.
 
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#22
#22
Am reading "Silent Warriors, Incredible Courage" (Wolfgang W.E. Samuel) and was quite shocked at first at how much war material, in Europe, was destroyed in place following WWII. This included a lot of the airplanes themselves, even ones never flown in combat. But I guess if you're going back to an isolationist footing with the A-bomb, it not worth the gas to bring them home. I also took it that this reduction caught them off guard not too much later with Korea, etc. Interesting .... anyway.
 
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#23
#23
Yeah, one of the ways the American Military Government pumped money into the German economy was paying German workmen to scrap brand-new US fighters and tanks along with German ones. Thing was that it wasn't economical to ship them to the US when all they were going to do with them was send them to Kingman, AZ or Davis-Montham and scrap them anyway.

Aircraft technology was changing rapidly as well with jets replacing piston-engine fighters in front-line service. Also the B-29 had rendered the B-24s and B-17s obsolete as well. The first thing 8th Air Force and 15th Air Force heavy bomber groups did upon returning home was to trade in their old bombers for B-29s. Then the Pacific War ended before they could re-deploy.

In the Pacific they just bulldozed them into ravines or into the sea.
 
#24
#24
Good point on the transition to jets......I'm at the point in the book where the generals (like LeMay, etc) are pushing hard for it. They had good foresight back then.
 
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#25
#25
It's hard to overstate just how big a shock the Me-262 was when it showed up first in late '44. It was 100mph faster than a Mustang and armed specifically to knock down bombers (4x30mm cannon). Both the British (Gloster Meteor) and the Americans (Bell P-59A) had operational jets but neither had quite the performance of the Messerschmitt at the time. Postwar Luftwaffe apologists tried to put the blame for the lag in getting the -262 into combat on Hitler insisting it be used as a fighter-bomber. However, the addition of bomb racks on the wing wouldn't seem to be that big an issue. What was actually going on was more the inevitable delays in getting a new aircraft design into service while full-scale production of existing models was going on. For example, the classic P-61 night fighter started life in late 1940 (a year before Pearl Harbor) and only reached combat status in late 1944.

Fortunately, both Lockheed and Republic while running flat out building P-38s and P-47s respectively, were casting about for new projects. Kelly Johnson of Lockheed sat down and came up with the P(later F)-80 Shooting Star which actually held its own against swept-wing MiG-15s over Korea five years later, though that was due more to superior American pilot training. Alexander Kartveli of Republic was simultaneously working on the P-84 Thunderjet but neither ship was ready before the end of the War.

Both these men were brilliant but Kelly Johnson was in a league of his own. He led the designs of the P-38, the F-80, the Constellation passenger plane, the F-104 Starfighter, the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes and contributed to the early work on the F-117 stealth fighter. Quite a resume' by any standard.

The genius of Kelly Johnson: his classic P-38 Lightning sits next to a brand new F-35A Lightning II. (US Air Force)

lightnings-side-by-side.jpg
 
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