Crew Roster · Personal File
John O. Lockhart
Co-Pilot · 330th Squadron
2nd Lt. John O. Lockhart served as co-pilot on the Ploesti mission of 1 August 1943. His fate is documented in E&E Report No. 1618, which records the experiences of crew members who survived the crash landing near Ploesti.
Lockhart survived the crash landing and was observed by bombardier Adams at a first aid station near the wreckage. He was subsequently captured by Romanian forces and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war.
Prisoner of War
Sortie Log
1 CATALOGUED SORTIE
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 badly shot up by anti-aircraft fire over Ploesti on 1 August 1943. Two engines were knocked out and fire broke out in No. 1 engine. The crew did not bail out; instead the aircraft crash landed. Upon impact it began burning. Only the nose section, wing tips, and vertical stabilizers survived — the rest of the aircraft was reduced to ashes. Six crew members survived the crash landing. The tail gunner (Havens) was killed in the turret before the crash. The engineer was pulled from the wreckage by the bombardier, Adams, but died of his wounds later.
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