Crew Roster · Personal File

Mark Fitzgerald

Engineer / Top Turret · 409th Squadron

T/Sgt. Mark Fitzgerald served as flight engineer aboard B-24D 42-40265 with the 409th Bomb Squadron, 93rd Bomb Group. He was from Fitzgerald, Georgia. His name appears in the MACR as 'Pitzgerald, Mahk' due to OCR or transcription error.

Fitzgerald filed an individual casualty questionnaire describing the crash landing on August 1, 1943, during the Ploesti raid. He confirmed that pilot Womble suffered a leg injury at the time of the crash. His status is listed as EUS (evaded/unknown status) on the MACR. His return address on the questionnaire was listed as 6-3861, AF.

Sortie Log

1 CATALOGUED SORTIE
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

B-24D serial 42-40265, assigned to the 409th Bomb Squadron, 93rd Bomb Group, departed Site #7 Bengasi on 1 August 1943 on a combat mission to the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. The aircraft was lost as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire during the low-level attack. Anti-aircraft damage forced the aircraft down at approximately 1150pm on 1 August 1943 near the town of Ploesti, Romania. The aircraft crash-landed in flat terrain approximately 5 to 10 miles from Ploesti. Several crew members were seen standing near the aircraft on the ground. The forced landing was confirmed by photographs taken by the 44th Bomb Group, which flew over the same area approximately 15 to 20 minutes later. The aircraft was described as riddled during the low-level attack, with no altitude remaining for any alternative to a crash landing.

Honkey Tonk Gal / Naked Truth, The42-40265