Gen. Maurice Preston Dead; Led Early Raid Over Germany

Jan. 29, 1983

Credit...The New York Times Archives

See the article in its original context from
January 29, 1983, Section 1, Page 9Buy Reprints

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.

About the Archive

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Gen. Maurice A. Preston, retired, of the Air Force, who led the 1943 ''Black Thursday'' bombing raid on ballbearing factories at Schweinfurt, Germany, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 70 years old.

General Preston, who lived in Washington, retired in 1968 after tours of duty commanding United States air forces in Japan and in Europe.

The air attack on Oct. 14, 1943, the second of World War II, resulted in heavy losses that forced the suspension of United States bomber attacks on Germany until the next year. The attack by 291 B-17 bombers resulted in the loss of 600 men, 60 planes shot down and 22 others crashed on landing or damaged beyond repair.

General Preston is survived by his wife, Dorothy, a son, a daughter and two grandchildren.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section 1, Page 9 of the National edition with the headline: Gen. Maurice Preston Dead; Led Early Raid Over Germany. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT