Date
Location
Force
Aircraft
From-To
Crew
04-08-1943
Portela Airport - Lisbon
USAAF 44BG
Consolidated B-24D-100-CO Liberator 42-40801
GB → North Africa
1Lt Howard W. Metts USA
1Lt Robert G. Stamos USA
2Lt Donald G. Campell USA
2Lt Alfred W. Foisy USA
Sgt Thomas S. Kinder USA
Sgt Calvin A. M. Millerbis USA
Sgt Andrew A. Kowalski USA
Sgt Edward Wojcik USA
Sgt William F. Morris USA
Sgt Herman J. Autry USA
The aircraft landed in Lisbon Airport at 08.12 hours.
It has been referred by some sources as belonging to the 93th BG, but the entire crew belongs to the 44th BG and in the months after they left the internment in Portugal they made several missions with that unit.
They were on the way to North Africa to participate in the mission “Tidal Wave”, the bombing of the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. Some of the elements mentioned in the crew list are probably ground crew.
On the same day the aircraft was taken to a Portuguese military base by Lt. Oliveira and was latter part of Aeronáutica Militar.
Stamos died in a mission to Bernburg, Germany, on April 11, 1943.
Morris and Woycik became POW’s when flying together on December 1, 1943, in a mission over Solingen, Germany.
Kowalski also became a POW after his plane was shot down in a mission over Langenhagen, Germany, on April 8, 1943.
Resources:
* “Aviões da Cruz de Cristo” – Mário Cannongia Lopes
* Arquivo ANA -Aeroportos e Navegação Aérea de Portugal - Lisboa
* 44th Bomb Group Veterans Association - http://www.44thbombgroup.com/main.html
