Lloyd Herbert Hughes

Born: July 12, 1921, Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Died: August 1, 1943 (age 22), Prahova River, Campina, Romania

Lloyd "Pete" Herbert Hughes a second lieutenant in the Army Air Forces who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Operation Tidal Wave (Ploesti Raid) during World War II.

1. He graduated from Refugio High School in Refugio, Refugio County, Texas. What year did he graduate?

• 1938
• 1939
• 1940

2. He attended both Corpus Christi Junior College, Corpus Christi, Texas and Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, and entered the military service at San Antonio on . He was appointed an aviation cadet the same day, and attended flight school at Tulsa and Enid, Oklahoma. When did he enter military service?

• January 28, 1942
• March 28, 1942
• April 28, 1942

3. On Nov 8, 1942, Lloyd Herbert Hughes married Hazel Dean Ewing.

• True or False?

4. Hughes received his pilot's wings at Lubbock, Texas and was assigned to the 389th Bombardment Group. He went to Africa in June 1943 and participated in five combat missions in the Italy-Romania area. When did he get his wings?

• Nov. 9, 1942
• Nov. 10, 1942
• Nov. 11, 1942

5. During the Aug. 1, 1943 bombing mission over the oil fields north of the Ploesti oil fields in Romania, Hughes was the pilot of a B-24 heavy bombardment aircraft flying in the last element of a formation. What was the name of the oil fields?

• Campina
• Bolgina
• Hobnobina

6. He approached the target at planned low altitude. They found intense and accurate antiaircraft fire and densely arranged barrage balloons. Several hits from both large and small caliber antiaircraft guns seriously damaged his aircraft.

• True or False?

7. Sheets of escaping gasoline streamed from the bomb bay and from the left wing. The leak was so heavy that it blinded his waist gunner's view. The damage was inflicted prior to reaching the target, when Hughes could have made a forced landing in one of the surrounding grain fields.

• True or False?

8. The target area was blazing with burning oil tanks refinery equipment, with flames leaping high above the bombing level of the formation. Knowing the consequences of entering the inferno with his airplane leaking gasoline in two places, Hughes elected to carry on, rather than jeopardize the formation and the success of the attack. He flew into the wall of fire at about 30 feet above the ground and dropped his bomb load with precision.

• True or False?

9. After successfully bombing the target, he emerged from the conflagration with the left wing of his aircraft on fire. He attempted to pull up and away from the action, trying to save his plane and crew. He successfully slowed the plane's speed form 225 to 100 miles an hour. looked as if he would be able to crash land in the dry river bed of the Prahova River, when suddenly the left wing flew off and the plane cartwheeled into the ground. Of the ten men aboard the B-24, Hughes and five others were killed, two died of their wounds within days and two survived the crash only to become prisoners of war.

• True or False?

10. Where is Lloyd Herbert Hughes buried?

• Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas
• Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
• Texas A&M Memorial Cemetery, College Station, Texas

Lloyd Herbert Hughes Answers

1. 1939
2. January 28, 1942
3. True
4. Nov. 10, 1942
5. Campina
6. True
7. True
8. True
9. True
10. Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas
    Plot: Section U, Site 53

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