Crew Roster · Personal File

Eugene W. Engdahl

Waist Gunner · 330th Squadron

S/Sgt. Eugene W. Engdahl served as waist gunner with the 330th Squadron, 93rd Bomb Group. On August 1, 1943, he was one of only three crew members to bail out successfully from his stricken aircraft during the low-level raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Romania.

Engdahl bailed out at approximately 2,000 feet over Bulgaria and his parachute opened successfully. Fellow crew member S/Sgt. Koen Jr. reported him as uninjured after landing, and S/Sgt. Murray confirmed seeing Engdahl alive on the ground after the bailout.

Engdahl is associated with E&E Report No. 2445, confirming that he successfully evaded and returned to Allied control. His name was occasionally rendered as 'Engdanl' in OCR transcriptions of period questionnaires.

Completed Tour

Sortie Log

2 CATALOGUED SORTIES
01 AUG 1943 — 01 AUG 1943

The sorties below are those we have been able to document for this airman, drawn from flight logs, mission records, and archival sources. It is not necessarily a complete account of every mission flown; gaps may reflect missing documentation, transferred assignments, or records lost to time.

8AF Mission

Date

Target

Aircraft

№ 115

01 AUG 1943

Ploesti

The aircraft was lost on August 1, 1943, during the low-level Ploesti mission (Operation Tidal Wave), departing Benghazi at 7:30 AM. The plane sustained catastrophic damage, with the left wing torn off and engines No. 1 and 2 knocked out, leaving it out of control. The plane crashed on a mountainside in Serbia at approximately 4:45 AM (likely local time after a long flight) and was burning fiercely upon impact. Only three enlisted gunners successfully bailed out; the mountain police informed S/Sgt. Murray after his capture that the rest of the crew had been killed. Murray examined the wreckage and confirmed the aircraft was destroyed on the mountainside. The plane did not explode on striking the ground, though it burned fiercely. All parachutes of the three survivors opened successfully; Murray's chute opened just above the treetops.

The aircraft took off from Benghazi at 07:31 on August 1, 1943, on a bombing mission. The plane went down over Bulgaria at approximately 5:00 PM. S/Sgt. Koen bailed out at approximately 2000 feet along with the two waist gunners and the tunnel gunner; their parachutes opened. The plane did not explode on impact but caught fire and burned. After reaching the ground, Koen observed two men who had been thrown from the plane without parachutes. Seven crew members were subsequently buried, believed to have gone down with the plane.

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