As you know, I’ve recently released scale model airplane model markings decal sets for 1/48 & 1/72 scale B-24D models. B-24D Hadley’s Harem is included in both scales. Since the decal sets were printed, a major change (which does not affect the actual decal markings) has been revealed. Although I will not update the decal set instructions already shipped, future sets will include the following changes:
“LATE BREAKING NEWS!
Thanks to my friend Pavel Türk, the world’s leading expert on B-24 configurations and author of the must-have B-24 Liberator Handbook 1.dil/Vol.1 (unfortunately in the Czech language only, but the pics & diagrams are invaluable), we can now confirm that HH almost certainly had FIXED .50 nose guns (read more)
Hello David,
I am the daughter of Christopher Norman Holweger the waist gunner on Hadley’s Harem during the Ploesti, Romania raid. I am writing his biography, “Forgotten Soldier: My Father’s World War II Story: Ploesti, Romania.” If you would like to read the introduction please let me know. He died of war-related trauma on the floor in front of my crib when I was 13-months-old.
Hi Jo
Thanks for contacting me. I check this website once a week on Saturdays, so it turns out we’ve already connected this week. As I said earlier, your book will be fascinating. The intro, which I’ve now read, is extremely well-written and poignant, so the book will be gangbusters.
Dave
Hello Jo,
I am a long ago sweetheart of Harold Tabacoff, the navigator on Hadley’s Harem during the Ploesti raid. We had a relationship in the late 1960s, when he gave me a hand embroidered runner which he said was given to him as a token of remembrance by one of the villagers who rescued him. I may have a lead as to whom it may have been. Sadly, Harold died in 1982 at age 60. I have been doing research about the Ploesti raid and am working on a memorial in memory of Harold Tabacoff and all those who stepped forward into what was expected to be a 50 percent suicide mission . I would very much like to read the introduction or full biography of your dad, waist gunner Christopher Norman Holweger. I hope to hear from you.
Paula Huffell
Hi Paula
I have notified Jo of your request. Good luck!
Dave
Hello Paula,
I am so glad to hear from you. Please email me and I will attach the introduction. [personal contact information removed by moderator, but supplied to requester).
Thanks for your Ploesti Raid talk tonight Dave.
I look forward to your upcoming book and
hopefully the movie someday.
In the movie based on Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken, about Lt. Louis Zamperini, their is a beautiful scene of the interior/exterior flight sequence of a B-24D that is a joy to see.
Looking forward to meet you !
Bill Andrea
Hi Bill
Hope you found my presentation useful!
I have a friend in Australia who was the B-24 technical advisor on Unbroken. He told me all the B-24 mockups, which, as you say, were of excellent quality, were broken up and sold for scrap immediately after the film crew wrapped shooting.
With the quality of today’s CGI, I’m not sure how much physical mockup work would need to be done for future films that feature the B-24. Some of the stuff being produced today is amazing, as was the CGI in Unbroken.
I’ll arrange to get up to your place as soon as my schedule will allow–looking forward to meeting you in person too.
Dave
Enjoyed presentation for CAF yesterday. Father flew wing to Compton and would have been first plane over target if no error. He was co pilot to Lt.DuFour. Not sure why co pilot, as he had crew listed in 376th literature. Either mixed crews for mission, or first few missions as co pilot for experience. He had already flown co pilot for Compton when newly arrived, in Teggy Ann. As B-24 required two pilots, his logbook doesn’t distinguish. He flew 35 missions, and I still have jacket with Liberando patch still attached. Hollywood story should be Brewery Wagon and John Palm. Dad and he ended up in El Paso in the 50’s and as a kid, I loved to play with his wooden leg. I’m sure you know story. If Ent didn’t make error, I probably wouldn’t be here although surprise might have protected him, as first over target. I’m sure he would disagree on 376th preparation. Know he taught tight formation upon return, to pilots on way to Europe and Italy, think at Luke Field, then flew medical airlift in C-54 out of Paris to New York after D-Day. Strangely, never found Europe ribbon, maybe because they were technically based in New York. Flew thousandth med flight, according to log book.
Hey J-M
I’m extremely interested in speaking with you via phone or email. I’ve sent you a direct email, so please contact me if you wish.
One thing I might not have made clear enough during the presentation is that while the lax formation discipline certainly applied to the 98th, it’s less clear to me this was also true of the 376th. Compton had been a squadron commander in the 93rd BG and flew the early combat missions in Northern Europe and with the 93rd when they went to the desert in Dec 42, so he had direct command experience in that high-threat environment.
He was impressive enough in that job that Gen Brereton chose him to command the 376th over the other available officers in the Theater. Everything I’ve seen strongly indicates Compton was a “professional leader,” unlike Kane, who was rather strongly a “personality-driven” leader. Kane was not incompetent, but was absolutely certain that he was correct in all situations and under all circumstances. The Air Force certainly recognized Compton as a superior leader since he retired as a Lt Gen (Kane was still a colonel when he retired about 10 years after TIDAL WAVE, and never held an important command position after the mission).
One thing I can say with certainty is that Compton was a loyal officer in a military that valued loyalty almost as much as competence and leadership ability. When Ent ordered the early turn, even though Compton knew it was not the correct place and argued with Ent, ultimately he followed orders—which is respectable and understandable. So did most of the 376th pilots, who—as I clearly pointed out in my presentation—deserve no blame for doing so even if all they did was make a tourist excursion to Romania. Norm Appold was a senior major and Palm was an experienced and fairly senior captain; it took men of this caliber to break away from the main formation and attack alone. Again: nobody can righteously criticize the pilots who followed their lead aircraft—it was their JOB.
Anyway, please give me a shout if you’d like to discuss this more.
Dave
Mr. Klaus —
I enjoyed very much your 3d August presentation on the Tidal Wave mission to the CAF,, and look forward to your forthcoming book. I’ve also secured two of your decal packages in :48 for use in future modeling. I currently have in my stash a Revell D-model B-24 that I would like to mark as the Baker-Jerstad aircraft, “Hell’s Wench”. I can find no written or photographic evidence of what those markings looked like or their placement on that particular airframe. I’ve looked in the obvious places — museums, 93rd BG sources I could find on the internet. The only material I found is the Roy Grinnell painting of that aircraft which may or may not be accurate. Are there any sources you would recommend where more information about “Hell’s Wench” might be found.. Thank you for your service as both warrior and historian!
Respectfully
Steve Ross
Hi Steve
Thanks much for your kind comments!
Hell’s Wench is a problem, because it appears no photos of her have survived. She was a brand-new airframe just arrived in Benghazi, and arrived with the nose art already painted on. The crew that paid for all the artwork had the plane taken away from them and were assigned a different ship for the TW mission.
EVERY decal and illustration purporting to show the name on the nose is wrong (Grinnell’s painting was based on the very old IPMS/Columbus IPMS National Convention decal sheet from the early ’90s). Because there are no photos, and the V-Letter describing the nose art had not yet surfaced, the IPMS artwork was (and was known at the time to be) notional rather than accurate.
Unfortunately even the V-Letter describing the artwork is not precise enough to make a good guess at what it looked like. In short, the plane had the name and female artwork on the left nose, but that’s about all that’s documented.
I sure wish I had better information because I sure as hell would have included this ship in my TIDAL WAVE decal sets! On the other hand, I’m not about to present notional or fictional artwork as established fact. A lot of modelers would be satisfied with that, but as an artist and producer I can’t afford such gross errors!
Wish I had better information for you.
Dave
Dave — thanks so much for the quick and full response! Since you included what information you do have in your data base I at least know the Wench’s correct serial number. It also appears that the dogged pursuit of LTC Baker’s proper ID has at last been determined and his remains located as of April this year. Good news, that! As I puttered a round the internet, I found in the American Air Museum in Britain website this entry, which grabbed my attention because the name of the plane and the fate of its crew were so close to that of the Baker-Jerstad crew. You probably already know this, but the link to Lt, Roy Harms and his mates is here: https://www.americanairmuseum.com/person/199240 Is this perhaps that crew that was first assigned to the Wench? This entire mystery is well worth pursuing and I’m glad you have done over so many years. Perhaps one day, God willing, we may learn the whole story. Thank you!
Respectfully
Steve Ross
Hi Steve
Yes, I’m very glad Baker’s remains have been identified, now more than 3/4 of a century after the mission.
It’s been a long time since I looked at Roy Grinnell’s dramatic and beautifully executed painting of Hell’s Wench. Due to the lack of information available to him at the time he painted it, there are some technical issues that can tend to (unintentionally) mislead viewers:
Again, and I can’t emphasize this enough, Roy Grinnell is due high praise and ZERO criticism for his depiction of Hell’s Wench final moments. The technical points I mentioned above were unknown (and probably unknowable) to him at the time he painted this masterpiece, and in any case an artist’s job is to convey a mood or impression and only us modelers/rivet counters get concerned about such details. I love this painting, which beautifully captures the heroism and poignancy of this event!
Dave
I had to take a break from writing my father’s biogrpahy, but now seriously working on it again. “Forgotten Soldier: My Father’s World War II Story: Ploesti, Romania.” Because my father, Christopher Norman Holweger, died when I was thirteen-months-old (I watched him die) and we became estranged from his family, I have had very little information that I can work with. I have just received his medical records from the National Archives. I would appreciate any contact, feedback, or help with research. I found online a “morning report” with his name, location Tunisia, but I can’t quite decipher what it means. If you would like to read the introduction email me (707)322-5719
He was the waist gunner aboard Hadley’s Harem, which was brought up from the Mediterranean Sea about twenty years ago and is on display at a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The pilot and co-pilot were trapped in the cockpit. Their skeletal remains were found by the divers and eventually returned to their hometowns and given military funerals.
This is very lonely and frustrating work for me. The world insists I was not affected by his shell-shock and death because I was a baby. This book is my answer. Eighteen years ago I published “Healing the Wound That Won’t Heal: the Reality of Trauma.” Can be purchased at Amazon.com
In this current book, in the chapter titled Shell-shock, I am giving an analysis of the post-war traumas suffered by WWII veterans. I quote war-corespondent Ernie Pyle in his discription of witnessing shell-shocked soldiers. Norman flew 27 missions before Ploesti, all within the North Africa campaign. I have sent for his military records from NARA.
I now have 20 letters written by my father during the war. He could not give information about the missions but more generally about his training. I have many more questions than I have answers at this point.
Hi Jo
Congratulations on your first book, and I wish you well on your second. Regarding the Morning Report, please email it to me at support at Low-Level-Ploesti.org, or email me the URL of the website page where you found the report (I assume it was on the Tara Copp website, but wherever it is I’ll download and explain it to you.
I’m particularly gratified that you’re able to work through the trauma via your writing. I know it’s tough; I’m still not finished with my TIDAL WAVE book and I’m not experiencing any of the PTSD you mention.
You mention asking for your Dad’s military records. I assume you mean the National Personnel Records Center (Military) in St Louis. I hope they’re able to send them because the 1970 arson fire in those records destroyed so many WW II and earlier personnel records. Apparently over a million files were lost to fire and water damage.
Again, best of luck in your endeavors.
Dave