7
Edwin Baker, One of Many, p. 17.
8
Hubert Womble, author interview, November 19, 1991. Womble also provided a written account of his Ploiesti experience to author Michael Hill. See Hill, Black Sunday: Ploesti (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Military/Aviation History, 1993), p. 66.
9
Ben Kuroki interview with Bill Kubota, August 26–27, 1998.
10
Ibid.
11
K. O. Dessert interview with Bill Kubota, October 16, 1998.
12
Ibid.
CHAPTER 28: THE LONGEST NIGHT
1
Edward Weir interview with Bill Kubota, August 29, 1998.
2
Ben Kuroki interview with Bill Kubota, August 26–27, 1998.
3
Brutus Hamilton diary entry for August 1, 1943.
4
K. O. Dessert interview with Bill Kubota, October 16, 1998.
5
Donald Hudspeth diary entry for August 2, 1943. Author’s collection. I spoke with Hudspeth several times during the 1990s and I formally interviewed him on July 9, 1991, and August 12, 1991. He mentioned that he kept a diary, which he then generously shared with me. Hudspeth died in Yadkinville, North Carolina, in 2012 at the age of ninety-one.
6
The 328th Squadron aircraft that returned from Sicily on Aug. 2, 1943 was Jerk’s Natural, the aircraft named and flown to England by John L. (Jerk) Jerstad, who died over Ploesti. The aircraft had been bequeathed to the William Stein crew, which had joined the 93rd in England in June. My uncle—my mother’s oldest brother—Technical Sergeant L. H. White was the radio operator on Jerk’s Natural. On Oct. 1, 1943, my uncle and eight other men, including William Stein, died during an attempted crash landing in southern Austria after bombing the German Messerschmitt Me-109 factory at Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
7
Homer Moran interview with Bill Kubota, Sept. 5, 1998, Most Honorable Son documentary, unedited footage, Ben Kuroki Collection, KDN Films Archives.
8
Ben Kuroki interview with Bill Kubota, August 26–27, 1998.
9
Brutus Hamilton diary entry for August 3, 1943.
10
Elmer (Bill) Dawley interview with Bill Kubota, November 12, 1998.
11
A 328th Squadron pilot who was among the 93rd men sent to Egypt for rest and relaxation following the Ploiesti raid detailed how the men spent their time in a letter to his family. Second Lieutenant George B. Wilkinson to Dear Mother, letter dated Aug. 7, 1943. Author’s collection.
CHAPTER 29: LIMBO
1
United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke, Wiener Neustadt, Austria, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: Survey, 1947).
2
Parton, Air Force Spoken Here, p. 263.
