DPAA Missing In Action

PHILLIPS; ELVIN L.
UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCES
WORLD WAR II
UT
Individual Type Unaccounted For Missing In Action
Rank Sgt
Service Number 19011888
Location Rumania
Date of Loss 8/01/1943
Unit 66 BOMBARDMENT SQUADRON 44 BOMBARDMENT GROUP (HEAVY)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56293355/elvin-l.-phillips
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131574835/elvin-lee-phillips

On August 1, 1943, a B-24D Liberator (serial number 42-24015, nicknamed "Wing Dinger") with nine crew members took off from Benghazi, Libya, to take part in Operation TIDAL WAVE. Operation TIDAL WAVE was a large-scale bombing effort targeting the oil refineries in Ploiesti, Romania, which provided the majority of petroleum for the German military during World War II. As the Liberator approached Ploesti, it was struck by anti-aircraft fire and one crew member was hit and killed. By the time the aircraft departed the target area, it was on fire and heavily damaged. Two crew members bailed out before the aircraft crashed and exploded, and both eventually returned to duty. The remaining seven crew members including the one who was hit and killed by the initial anti-aircraft fire, were still aboard the Liberator when it crashed. Only the remains of two of these crew members were eventually recovered and identified.

Sergeant Elvin L. Phillips joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Utah and was a member of the 66th Bombardment Squadron, 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy). He was the tail gunner aboard the "Wing Dinger" during Operation TIDAL WAVE, and was the crew member killed by enemy ground fire when the aircraft was initially hit. His body was still aboard the aircraft when it crashed, and his remains have not been associated with any remains recovered from the area after the war. He is still unaccounted-for. Today, Sergeant Phillips is memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery in England.

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Sgt Phillips aboard 44th Bomb Group B-24D Liberator heavy bomber “Wing Dinger” (a 66th Bomb Squadron ship) B-24D-15-CO 41-24015, aircraft code letter R, when his aircraft was shot down. The aircraft, flown by pilot Lt. George Winger, was one of 16 44th BG B-24s assigned to attack target White V, the Columbia Aquila refinery. Unfortunately, his aircraft was in the last wave over the target, on the right side of a four-ship line-abreast formation and thus was primed for a hot reception by an alerted enemy. Waist gunner S/Sgt Michael Cicon recalled “We were so low you could pick an ear of corn off the stalk.” Before they reached the target 20mm cannon shells from antiaircraft guns on the ground killed the tail gunner Sgt. Elvin Phillips and knocked out one engine on each wing. They made it to the target, dropped their bombload and emerged from the cauldron straight and level but with black smoke coming from the bomb bay and filling the cockpit. Flak or explosions over the target had set the nose of the ship on fire. The pilot and copilot desperately tried to pull their mortally damaged ship up to altitude to enable the crew to bail out and brought it up to maybe 1,000 feet before the aircraft’s speed dropped off and it fell off on a wing into a hammerhead stall and crashed. Waist gunners S/Sgt’s Michael Cicon and Bernard Traudt managed to bail out – Cicon landed within 50 yards of the burning wreck. Sgt. Gotts bailed out too but he didn’t survive. The other six crewmen aboard rode the ship into the ground and were all killed. Six other B-24Ds of this formation were also lost on the mission, and two more were interned in Turkey after their pilots decided they couldn’t make it back to base – nine out of 16 lost. Their target was heavily damaged with most important elements destroyed and did not resume full production for 11 months. According to Romanian aviation historian Dan Melinte, Sgt. Gotts bailed out too low and his parachute didn’t open in time before he struck the ground and was killed. Romanian citizens found his body half-buried in the ground and local gendarme identified him by his dog tags. Unfortunately, The Germans arrived shortly thereafter and took his body and with 24 other Tidal Wave aircrew corpses and buried them in a common grave in a civilian cemetery in Bolovani in Ploiesti sans any identification. The mass grave was exhumed after the war and the unidentified remains were taken to the American Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz in Belgium.

Not commonly known is that when Wing Dinger came down it crashed onto the property of a Mr. Mederliu, landing near but not on his house, but ironically on top of him as he was using the privy out back at the time. Another civilian casualty of Operation Tidal Wave, inadvertent as it was.

In a recent Operational Tidal Wave exhibition in Ploiesti, some pieces of Winger Dinger were on display. The event was well attended on the 1 August anniversary, and the exhibition was displayed for the next two weeks. We are thankful to the Romanian citizens who planned, organized and helped this symposium and accompanying exhibition to remember those lost in the great air-land battle on that Black Sunday in the summer of 1943.

information obtained at Find A Grave Memorial https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56293355

Sergent Phillips was a recipient of the Distinguished flying cross for his participation in the Ploesti raid "Operation Tidal Wave" August 1st 1943. One of the most daring raids of WW2. Coming in at tree top level the 44th BG destroy Romanian oil refineries.

Sgt Phillips remains were never recovered.

Elvin Lee Phillips is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, England. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.

COMMENDATIONS

★ Distinguished Flying Cross ★ Air Medal ★ Purple Heart

7 casualties related to the #41-24015 incident on August 1, 1943.

◼Edward Barnett_ :: Co-Pilot _https://www.fold3.com/page/529863316-edward-barnett/stories

◼Howard F Gotts_ :: Radio Operator _https://www.fold3.com/page/529869316-howard-f-gotts/facts

◼Jacob Gradwohl_ :: Bombardier _https://www.fold3.com/page/84928266-jacob-gradwohl/stories

◼++T/Sgt. Harold Kretzer++_ :: Flight Engineer _https://www.fold3.com/page/529904051-harold-kretzer/stories

◼Frederick H Palmer_ :: Navigator _https://www.fold3.com/page/639663440-frederick-h-palmer/stories

◼Elvin L Phillips_ :: Tail Gunner _https://www.fold3.com/page/529902007-elvin-l-phillips/stories

◼George W Winger_ :: Pilot _https://www.fold3.com/page/529868930-george-w-winger/stories