Suggested edit from FAG Contributor (48612389)
*** ACCOUNTED FOR ***
PRESS RELEASE | April 4, 2022
Airman Accounted For From World War II (Phillips, E.)

WASHINGTON – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Elvin L. Phillips, 23, killed during World War II, was accounted for March 23, 2022.

In the summer of 1943, Phillips was assigned to the 66th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Phillips was serving as a gunner crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Phillips' personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001EhNpKEAV.
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Gunner Sgt. Elvin L. Phillips MIA/KIA DFC
Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah.
Squadron: 66th BS 44th Bomb Group
Service #19011888
Awards: Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart
Pilot 1st/Lt. GEORGE W. WINGER, KIA

Target: Ploesti
USAAF MACR#:
Date Lost: 1-Aug-43
Serial Number: 41-24015
Aircraft Model B-24D
Aircraft Letter:
Aircraft Name: WING DINGER
Location: Lost near the target, Ploesti 7 KIA
Cause:

Sergent Phillips was a recipient of the Distinguished flying cross for his participation in the Ploesti raid "Operation Tidal Wave" August 1st 1943. One of the most daring raids of WW2. Coming in at tree top level the 44th BG destroy Romanian oil refineries.

Sgt Phillips remains were never recovered.
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Sgt Phillips aboard 44th Bomb Group B-24D Liberator heavy bomber "Wing Dinger" (a 66th Bomb Squadron ship) B-24D-15-CO 41-24015, aircraft code letter R, when his aircraft was shot down. The aircraft, flown by pilot Lt. George Winger, was one of 16 44th BG B-24s assigned to attack target White V, the Columbia Aquila refinery. Unfortunately, his aircraft was in the last wave over the target, on the right side of a four-ship line-abreast formation and thus was primed for a hot reception by an alerted enemy. Waist gunner S/Sgt Michael Cicon recalled "We were so low you could pick an ear of corn off the stalk." Before they reached the target 20mm cannon shells from antiaircraft guns on the ground killed the tail gunner Sgt. Elvin Phillips and knocked out one engine on each wing. They made it to the target, dropped their bombload and emerged from the cauldron straight and level but with black smoke coming from the bomb bay and filling the cockpit. Flak or explosions over the target had set the nose of the ship on fire. The pilot and copilot desperately tried to pull their mortally damaged ship up to altitude to enable the crew to bail out and brought it up to maybe 1,000 feet before the aircraft's speed dropped off and it fell off on a wing into a hammerhead stall and crashed. Waist gunners S/Sgt's Michael Cicon and Bernard Traudt managed to bail out – Cicon landed within 50 yards of the burning wreck. Sgt. Gotts bailed out too but he didn't survive. The other six crewmen aboard rode the ship into the ground and were all killed. Six other B-24Ds of this formation were also lost on the mission, and two more were interned in Turkey after their pilots decided they couldn't make it back to base – nine out of 16 lost. Their target was heavily damaged with most important elements destroyed and did not resume full production for 11 months.
According to Romanian aviation historian Dan Melinte, Sgt. Gotts bailed out too low and his parachute didn't open in time before he struck the ground and was killed. Romanian citizens found his body half-buried in the ground and local gendarme identified him by his dog tags. Unfortunately, The Germans arrived shortly thereafter and took his body and with 24 other Tidal Wave aircrew corpses and buried them in a common grave in a civilian cemetery in Bolovani in Ploiesti sans any identification. The mass grave was exhumed after the war and the unidentified remains were taken to the American Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz in Belgium.

Not commonly known is that when Wing Dinger came down it crashed onto the property of a Mr. Mederliu, landing near but not on his house, but ironically on top of him as he was using the privy out back at the time. Another civilian casualty of Operation Tidal Wave, inadvertent as it was.

In a recent Operational Tidal Wave exhibition in Ploiesti, some pieces of Winger Dinger were on display. The event was well attended on the 1 August anniversary, and the exhibition was displayed for the next two weeks. We are thankful to the Romanian citizens who planned, organized and helped this symposium and accompanying exhibition to remember those lost in the great air-land battle on that Black Sunday in the summer of 1943.

Crew of WING DINGER
1Lt George W. Winger Pilot
1Lt George W. Winger Pilot
2nd Lt. Edward Barnett Co Pilot
1st/Lt.Frederick H. Palmer Navigator
T/Sgt. Harold Kretzer Engineer
/Sgt.Elvin L. Phillips Gunner
/Sgt. Jacob Gradwohl Gunner
Sgt. Sgt Howard F. Gotts Gunner
Sgt. Sgt Howard F. Gotts Gunner