PLOESTI

This article originally appeared in the Setember/October 1995 issue of The Messenger.

   In the southern foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the Transylvania region of Rumania, was located perhaps the finest and largest oil field in Europe outside of Russia.  By 1943, the Ploesti field had become Hitler’s petroleum mainstay, with  most of the oil moving up the Danube into the heart of Germany.

   At a meeting between Winston Churchill and The American staff on June 3, 1943 a decision was made that the field must be bombed. It was a decision that ended in tragedy.  The mission was called Operation Tidal Wave and during the campaign, there were so many acts of valor that it became the most highly decorated American mission of any war.  There were five Congressional Medals of Honor awarded, three posthumously.  The losses were immense and one loss was De Leon’s Joe Edward Boswell.

    Operation Tidal Wave was not the first tie De Leon had to Ploesti, neither would it be the last.

   Ploesti had been the first oil boom town in world history, predating the discovery of oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania.  By the end of World War I, the field had been bypassed. Rumania had neither the expertise nor the capital to bring the field to its full potential.  It was here that De Leon’s first tie to the area came in.

    Michael L. Benedum and some associates had supplied the capital to drill the discovery well and eventually develop a large section of the Desdemona oil field in 1918.  Benedum was such a major player in oil that he was known as “Mr. Oil”, a title whose ownership perhaps only John D. Rockerfeller could question.

    Benedum had lost his only child, Claude, to pneumonia while he was serving in the military in World War I.  His death came only a month after the discovery of oil in Desdemona and a month before the war ended. Joe Trees, Benedum’s partner in all ventures except Desdemona, had also lost his only child in a military plane crash in England during the war.  Following the war, at the peak of the Desdemona oil boom, Benedum turned his affairs over to a friend, Foster Parriott who had help put the Desdemona deal together, and he and his wife left on a tour of Europe to try to get away from the memories of their loss.

    The Benedums were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. John Leonard who happened to meet a friend in Paris.  The woman was a finale dancer who was also seeking an American investor for her friend Queen Ann of Rumania.  She quickly learned that Mr. Oil was accompanying the Leonards and arranged a meeting with the Queen.

    Queen Ann was seeking someone to modernize and develop the Ploesti field and very quickly an agreement was reached.  Benedum and Leonard organized a new company called the Carpathian Oil Company to develop the field.  The work began within weeks and was progressing at a very rapid rate.  However, back in Desdemona, the production of that field was falling severely and soon Benedum had to sell the Carpathian to Standard Oil and Rockefeller. It was not long before Ploesti was supplying oil to Britain, France and the rest of Europe.  Fully developed, Ploesti was about six miles long and covered about twenty square miles, just about the same size as the Desdemona field.  Five refineries surrounded the field.

    Planning for the attack on Ploesti began immediately.  In expectation of just such an attack, Hitler moved to protect the field.  On the southern approaches, he placed an estimated eighty large and 140 small anit-aircraft guns and concealed many of them in chicken coops and small houses whose roofs could be opened for the battler to come.

   The attack on Ploesti was handled by General Jacob E. Smart, who realized that he had been given an almost impossible task.  His plan had it been followed, might have worked.  The planes were to fly at a low altitude to avoid detection and attack the field from the rear where a smaller number of defensive weapons were placed.

    One hundred and seventy-eight B-24s left five bases near Bengazi, Lybia in the middle of a sandstorm.  The first problem came about halfway to the target when the lead plane carrying the mission navigator lost power and went into the sea.  A second plane descended to see it there were survivors and could never regain enough altitude to continue the mission.

    The Germans had intercepted a message and knew the force was on the way.  They picked up the planes on radar as they entered Yugoslavia.

   Then, another problem occurred.  The replacement navigator made an error and turned before the assigned place.  When the pilot realized the error, he decided to go straight to the Ploesti field and by doing so, crossed the heaviest defensive positions.

   The planes took a pounding.  Fifty-four of the planes were lost, each carrying ten men.  Fifty-eight more were damaged.  Three hundred and ten men were killed in action, another 150 wounded.  One hundred eight-five became prisoners of war.

   Twenty-one year old Joe Edward Boswell was a flight officer on one of the planes.  He had entered the Army Air Corps in 1940.  He trained at Kelly Field and served in England and Africa prior to the mission.  He was killed on that mission, August 1, 1943.  Posthumously, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart.

    The raid initially knocked out about 50% of the production of the refineries, but within weeks, using slave labor, the Germans regained full production.

   Five more raids had to be flown to cut the flow of oil to Hitler’s army.  That’s how De Leon once again became involved with Ploesti.

   Joe Morgan was on two of those raids.  Both originated out of Amendola Field in Italy.  Joe Flew one mission on April 24, 1944 and another on May 5, 1944.

At the time a crew operating out of Italy had to fly fifty missions in order to cycle home, while those flying out of England had to fly only 25 mission.  The danger of the Ploesti mission counted two each.

    On one of the missions, flying next to Morgan was General Smart who had planned the initial raid on Ploesti.  Joe watched as the General’s plane was knocked from the air and crashed to the ground.  He always assumed General Smart was killed on the raid.

   Then a few years ago while heading to a reunion of flyers, he saw General Smart in the Denver airport and was able to meet him and tell him he had  witnessed what he thought had been his death   

The Free Press printed Joe Edward’s last letter to his family.  After all copies of the paper were sold out and demand for copies of the letter poured in, the Free Press reprinted the letter on September 3, 1943. 

    A squadron of B 29s flew over De Leon on June 6, 1944 in honor of Joe Edward Boswell.

My Darling Mother and Family,

To start with I want to say I hope you never have this letter mailed to you because if it is it’ll mean I have gone before you.  Yes, I am writing this as a last letter just in case anything goes wrong tomorrow (Sunday, August 1, 1943).

   We are going on a mission tomorrow that will have much to do with bringing this war to a close than anything else so far if it is a success, and it will be a success.  You just can’t stop us Americans once we make up our minds to do a thing.

    I won’t say where we are going for several reasons but you can read the papers and find out where we bombed on August 1, 1943.  The headlines should be full.

   I just wanted all of you to know how very proud I am of you and I consider it an honor by being a brother to such a wonderful family and a son to such a dear mother.  You have always been the best to me in everything and I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.  I am not afraid of the job that is ahead of me nor have I any fear if the worst is to happen.  You can’t fight a war without someone getting hurt and I am no more than my buddies that fly next to me.  If it takes my life to make this a free world then I am ready-- because there is nothing so dear as freedom.  Remember that is what boys all over the world are dying for every day.

   I did have a lot thought up to say but I just can’t seem to write this afternoon for some reason  or another.

   Oh yes, drop Eunice and Jane a line so they will know why my letters have stopped.

    I have read the 91st Psalm and it helps to no end.

   Try not to grieve over me as that isn’t the way I want it.  I have had a good life and a lot of fun so I don’t have any regrets.  Always remember me in your prayers and if it’s the Lord’s will I’l be waiting for you in that Heavenly City.

   Be sweet and never let up in this fight for freedom until there is freedom for every more.

   All my love and best wishes to each of you.

   Your son and brother.

Joe E. Boswell

“KEEP EM FLYING”

Joe Edward Boswell enlisted at Kelly Field on July 6, 1940 along with several other De Leon boys. He flew a B-24, four engine heavy bomber.   Maurice Simmons, one of the other De Leonians who enlisted that day said that a crew member on board the B-24 who managed to bail out as the plane went down had stated that a cannon shell exploded inside the cockpit and that Joe had no chance to bail out.

Boswell’s body was returned to De Leon in June 1950.  He was interred in the De Leon Cemetery on June 5.  Although inclement  weather delayed the flight by about an hour, a squadron on B-29a flew over twon as a final salute.