“Thunder Mug”

Thundermug flew to Ploesti on August 1, 1943 with Russell Longnecker, a recent RCAF transfer, taking the first-pilot's seat for the first time after the regular pilot was grounded by dysentery; his co-pilot Deacon Jones and observer Odin Olsen were also flying their first combat mission, alongside a crew of Sergeants Pinson, Strand, Sand, Teague, Douglas, and Cunningham. Longnecker flew the low-level attack tucked on Hugh Roper's Exterminator, with Victor Olliffe's Let 'er Rip on the other wing, and dove the aircraft under a muzzle flash from a crossroads gun position during the run over the target.

On the withdrawal, Thundermug briefly lost sight of Roper and Olliffe in a cloud bank; the two aircraft had collided inside it, and Longnecker never saw them again. Flying home alone, the crew took a strange mid-air strike when a bird crashed into top-turret gunner Pinson's turret. Thundermug reached North Africa with its gauges reading empty, landing just behind Ramsay Potts's Duchess.