Two things American fliers never did before World War II were low-altitude bombing and aerobatic maneuvering. By the time the 1943 Ploesti oil raid was over, both taboos had been broken - and by a local man.
In his B-24, nicknamed "Utah Man" for the University of Utah fight song, Walter Stewart was the deputy leader on one of the most pivotal missions of the war - bombing the Ploesti oil fields in Romania, the most plentiful supplier of fuels to the Nazi and fascist regimes."They said that if we took out Ploesti, the Italians would be out of the war in 30 days," Stewart said. "It actually took them 33, and the whole face of the war changed. The Germans weren't even able to carry out their invasions of Russia."
Flying his 31st mission (after 25, pilots were supposed to have completed their war duties), he flew just behind 93rd Bomb Group leader Col. Addison Baker over the Romanian oil refineries on Aug. 1, 1943 - a Sunday, the day on which squadrons typically flew their most dangerous missions. An early tactical mistake on the raid led the B-24 squadrons, flying as low as 200 feet, through the teeth of the enemy defenses, but Stewart recalled Baker sticking with the mission.
"(Our leaders) told us that if we didn't bomb it that day, we'd have to return to do it another day," Stewart said. "And they'd be even more prepared next time. It was one of the greatest acts of bravery I've ever witnessed - we were only 10 minutes ahead of the enemy. He said he was going over the target if he had to go over in flames, and he did."
After Baker's "Hell's Wench" went down, Stewart's "Utah Man" (which he named to show off his state pride to boastful Texans) became the lead plane, dropping three of its six-bomb payload on the five Romanian refineries. However, three of the plane's bombs failed to drop, and the crew was forced the drop them manually (including hand-throwing a 100-pound incendiary device out of the bomb bay).
Also, "Utah Man" was headed on a collision course with a radio tower, and a steep climb would have taken the plane into enemy fire. Stewart instead rolled the plane sideways, narrowly missing the tower. Enemy fire had also struck one of the B-24's fuel tanks, but as the gas level ebbed lower and lower, Stewart and his crew decided to head back to base on a wing and a prayer.
"John Connelly, my navigator, said he'd never been so out of gas, but we came back last from the mission, even after we'd been reported missing in action," Stewart said.
The mission being at least a partial success, with three of the five refineries having been taken out, Stewart flew one remaining mission before heading home to the Beehive State.
In 1941, Stewart was a 24-year-old, U.S. Army-Air Force cadet at the University of Utah. "We were pulling guns around with horses as a plane flew overhead. Jack Adamson, who had been my mission companion, said to me, `There's a war coming.' Later that year, I was one of the first flying cadets in Ontario, Calif."
Stewart received several medals and commendations for his war record, including a Silver Star and a Presidential citation.
Today, Stewart, 75, recites tales about the raid at a variety of functions, including local school assemblies, LDS firesides and other church meetings (in fact, he estimates he's retold it in the thousands of times). He's also the subject of an upcoming TV documentary titled, appropriately enough, "Utah Man."
"Interest kind of died down in the war during the '60s and '70s," he said. "But with 50 years coming up, interest has never been higher."