[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 109 (Tuesday, August 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF OPERATION HALYARD

  (Mr. CRANE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, 50 years ago today--on August 9, 1944--one of 
the most daring OSS missions in history resulted in the rescue of 250 
American airmen who had been shot down following air raids on oil 
installations and communications in Romania. Three waves of C-47's 
lifted the men to safety from a makeshift airfield only 90 miles from 
Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In subsequent missions, the total of rescued 
airmen reached 800.
  During the first part of 1944, hundreds of Allied sorties were flown 
from Italian bases against the Ploesti oil complex in Romania, Hitler's 
most important source of oil during World War II. The losses were 
heavy. Since the route home led across Yugoslavia, and because the 
Serbian area was under the control of General Draja Mihailovich, Royal 
Yugoslav resistance leader, hundreds of American airmen who had to 
bailout over Yugoslavia were picked up by Mihailovich's fighters. The 
rescued airmen were thus saved from capture and imprisonment by German 
troops who occupied Yugoslavia.
  Under cover of darkness, C-47's flew the men from the airfield. 
Within a radius of 20 to 30 miles from there were half a dozen German 
garrisons ranging in size from several hundred to several thousand men. 
A Luftwaffe unit was stationed at an airfield just 30 miles away.
  It is believed the rescue--code named ``Operation Halyard''--was the 
largest and most daring operation of its kind conducted anywhere in 
Axis-occupied Europe during World War II.
  It is only fitting that we recall the rescued and the rescuers on 
this day, the 50th anniversary of ``Operation Halyard.''

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