Tidal Wave
It took sheer courage, and lots of it, for each bomber crew to press on into a huge cloud of flak at Ploesti. By Walter J. Boyne
he Aug. 1, 1943 air raid on Only the indomitable bravery of the a carefully thought out charge into the Ploesti, Romania, had an ambi- Ploesti airmen under fire rescued the mouth of almost certain death. tious goal: Shorten World War attack from failure. What might have In wartime, heroism is often over- TII by knocking out much of Germany’s been an utter disaster was turned into looked in the press of events. That was petroleum production in a single blow. an admittedly costly American vic- not so with Ploesti, for a cascade of Called Operation Tidal Wave, the attack tory that established new standards for decorations proved how much the AAF by five United States Army Air Forces combat initiative, aggressiveness, and leadership understood the risks and ap- bomber groups on Ploesti was well- tenacity. preciated the sacrifice. planned and well-rehearsed. The raid called forth thousands of acts Five Medals of Honor were awarded It was undermined by an incorrect of heroism, most of them unrecorded, from the mission that day, more than in premise and faulty intelligence. The lost in the fiery crashes of B-24s disin- any other single air action. There was a American forces operated under the tegrating under the heavy German fire. profusion of other medals as well, but the illusion that a single strike could do ir- There was one common denominator, most important accolade shared by the reparable damage to a major target. More however, easily measured. That was the survivors was the permanent acknowl- immediately, American intelligence sheer courage necessary for each bomber edgement that they had accomplished an totally underestimated the strength and to press on to its target, flying into a huge important and dangerous mission. skill of the combined German-Romanian black hurricane of anti-aircraft fire. Ploesti, a city of 100,000, was ringed resistance and the ability of German This was no impetuous attack, no by seven major refineries that produced intelligence. spur of the moment decision, but rather about one-third of Germany’s oil and
74 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2007 one-third of its aviation fuel. Air Force the mission, and selected Maj. John L. sion was so important that Ent confided planners recognized from the start that Jerstad as operations officer. that “if nobody comes back, the results it would be an extremely difficult target. There would be fewer than 200 bomb- will be worth the cost.” It was located far from feasible bases ers for the 2,300-mile round-trip mis- German strategy was based on experi- and well-defended. sion. ence and helpfully stimulated by the only The impetus for the attack came from In one way the raid was unlike most previous American attack on Ploesti. the very top, for it was agreed upon by of those fought in Europe. The American When the United States declared war Prime Minister Winston Churchill and forces were quartered in the Libyan on Nazi-occupied Romania and Hungary President Roosevelt at the Casablanca wasteland in austere, uncomfortable on June 5, 1942, a decision was made Conference in January 1943. accommodations and unhygienic condi- to attack Ploesti. On June 12, 1942, 12 No one asked the commander of tions. The defending Germans, happy B-24s raided Ploesti—the first American Ninth Air Force, Maj. Gen. Lewis H. not to be on the Eastern Front, were bombing raid on a European target. The Brereton, if the mission was feasible. enjoying the Romanian summer, where damage to the oil refineries was minimal He was simply ordered to do it. Brere- food, liquor, women, and gasoline were but all 12 bombers landed safely—six in ton selected Brig. Gen. Uzal G. Ent to readily available. Iraq, two in Syria, and four in Turkey, oversee preparations for the raid, and Dysentery was rife in the American where the aircraft were seized and the also had the services of Col. Jacob E. camp, striking even the top leaders, crews interned. Smart, a trusted advisor to Gen. Henry while on the German side the greater That raid was a gift to Col. Alfred H. “Hap” Arnold. hazard was from hangovers. Gerstenberg, the wily Luftwaffe officer It was Smart who proposed a low-level commanding Ploesti’s defenses. At a mission, an extraordinary departure Unfounded Optimism time when every gun and fighter was from the cherished AAF doctrine of Under Smart’s guidance, the Ameri- required either for the Eastern Front or high-altitude precision bombing. cans planned a low-level attack to evade the air defense of Germany, Gersten- Smart—who was later shot down, German radar and allow a simultaneous berg used the importance of the Ploesti spent 11 months as a prisoner of war, assault against the seven key targets. petroleum output and its vulnerability and ultimately retired as a four-star gen- The time over target for the attacking to Allied air raids to obtain massive eral—felt there was no choice. Analysis wave was to be so brief that the bomb- defensive reinforcements. indicated that at least 1,400 heavy bomb- ers were intended to be en route home Gerstenberg connected the important ers were necessary to achieve success before the flak could respond or fighters refineries circling Ploesti with a ring of with a high-altitude raid, and these were scrambled. piping that allowed him to isolate dam- not available. He opted for the one tactic This optimistic view was clouded age and facilitate repairs. that might work—a surprise low-level at- when an Axis prisoner revealed that He then placed another ring around tack. Col. Edward J. Timberlake planned Ploesti was heavily defended. The mis- the city. This one comprised 237 separate 88 mm and 105 mm anti-aircraft guns. There were also hundreds of batteries of 37 mm and 20 mm cannons, balloons, light flak towers, and countless machine gun installations. Gerstenberg camouflaged his anti- aircraft guns in buildings and haystacks. His piece de resistance was a train able
Opposite, thick oil smoke rises over Columbia Aquila refinery. Left, an unidentified Ninth Air Force aircrew member fastens up his flak suit before the Operation Tidal Wave mission.
AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2007 75 to move through the target area pulling speeds, close to the ground, in turbulent the Romanians would leave their guns freight cars laden with concealed anti- air, is dangerous. Navigating unfamiliar unmanned during the attack. aircraft batteries. terrain while coming in low might make On a more practical level, the five For interception, Gerstenberg had 52 the enemy anti-aircraft gunner’s job more groups practiced low-level formation Messerschmitt Bf-109s and 17 twin- difficult, but it also exposed the aircraft flying, including two mock missions engine Messerschmitt Bf-110s within to every sort of ground fire, from pistols involving the entire task force on July 20 miles of Ploesti. Half of the 109s to 105 mm cannon. 28 and 29. On the second mission, the were flown by German and half by Practice low-level strikes attacked task force destroyed the entire target in Romanian pilots. Also available were enemy installations in Sicily. Both the just two minutes, boosting morale. other German and Romanian aircraft, new low-level bombsight and the tactics Then, a crew shortage threatened. along with Bulgarian units. seemed effective. Extra efforts by maintenance personnel Even more important, Gerstenberg Engineers also laid out dummy made additional aircraft available for the had established a radar interception net targets in the desert around Beng- mission at the same time that dysentery along with an efficient signal detection hazi, complete with scale replicas of forced several men off flying status. The unit in Athens which was monitoring the refineries. A detailed sand-table problem was compounded when Hap Ninth Air Force transmissions. These model of Ploesti was constructed and Arnold sent orders forbidding Brereton, were fed to the equivalent of a mod- a series of oblique sketches of the Timberlake, and Smart from flying on ern combined air operations center, a targets was made so that the aircrews the mission. It took a judicious shuffling sophisticated fighter command head- would recognize them on their ap- of available personnel to make up the quarters in Bucharest. There the route proach. There were models of specific deficiencies. of the “secret mission” was tracked soon buildings within the five refineries in In the early morning hours of Aug. 1, after takeoff. Ploesti; the refinery at Campina, 18 the strike was launched with 178 Con- In short, Gerstenberg had been pre- miles northwest of the city; and one solidated B-24s taking off from Libya, paring for years to defend Ploesti. His at Brazi, five miles to the south. These their sand-scoured engines straining to antagonists had six weeks to prepare seven major targets were assigned to get them airborne. to attack it. elements of the five groups. There were 1,764 crewmen—and Yet American preparation was thor- an Englishman, RAF Squadron Leader ough. A low-level attack offers definite Soapsuds George C. Barwell—who was there advantages, such as greater bombing Famous Hollywood journalist and unofficially and welcome for his gun- accuracy. It also makes it more difficult publicity man John Reagan “Tex” Mc- nery expertise. for fighters to attack and gives enemy Crary made a training film called “Soap- One aircraft crashed shortly after anti-aircraft gunners less time to fire. suds” (the original code name for the takeoff, incurring the first of the day’s Low-level assaults also have distinct mission), which gave a good representa- many casualties. disadvantages. The B-24 was not de- tion of the target. It should have been Each B-24 was equipped with extra signed for close formation low-level titled “Whistling in the Dark,” however, bomb-bay tanks and fueled with 3,100 work, and flying in formation at high for it predicted a weak defense and that gallons of gasoline. The formation as 76 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2007 B-24s take off en route to Ploesti as part of Operation Tidal Wave. Brown (later Chief of Staff) in Queenie and Maj. Ramsay D. Potts in The Duch- ess, attacked the Astra Romana, Unirea Orion, and Columbia Aquila refineries approaching seven targets at once was on the south side of the city. no longer possible. Attacking at 300 feet or less, 11 The groups might have been reformed aircraft from the 93rd were lost in the into a single unit had they not maintained target area. the prescribed radio silence, unaware In the lead group, Ent considered that the Germans had already concluded the anti-aircraft fire to be too intense that the target was Ploesti. to penetrate to the 376th’s target, the All five groups reached Pitesti, 65 Romana Americana refinery, and he told miles from Ploesti. From Pitesti, the Compton to order an attack on “targets 389th BG departed for an attack on its of opportunity.” target at Campina. Halfway to the next For most of the 376th this turned out waypoint at Floresti, Compton was to be an attack from the east on Campina, monitoring the navigation closely—too the 389th’s target. Five bombers plunged closely—with Ent in the jump seat. into the inferno to strike the Concordia Compton mistook the small town of Tar- Vega refinery. goviste as Floresti and turned the 376th southeast on a heading to Bucharest. All Crews to Ploesti Lt. Col. Addison E. Baker, leading In the meantime, Col. John R. Kane, the 93rd, turned with the 376th. 98th BG commander, and Col. Leon W. Chaos was in the making, even though Johnson, 44th BG commander, reached some now broke radio silence to call Floresti and headed to their assigned attention to the mistake. targets—Asta Romana for the 98th, The turn plunged the two groups di- Columbia Aquila for the 44th. By now rectly into the holocaust of Gerstenberg’s the defense reaction was at its peak, a whole carried 311 tons of bombs, anti-aircraft fire, but took them 40 miles and the 98th and 44th also faced the mostly of 1,000 and 500 pounds, with from where the Messerschmitts were low-level hazard of the delayed action a sprinkling of incendiaries. They flew waiting. bombs dropped by the 93rd and the in route formation, boxes of six aircraft Recognizing the error, Baker turned horrendous explosions of the oil-filled in two V formations of three. At low 90 degrees to lead the 93rd toward storage tanks. altitude, they passed the island of Corfu Ploesti, while Compton continued for Kane knew the importance of the mis- then headed northeast toward Albania a time toward Bucharest. sion. He had told his bomb group that and Yugoslavia. In the German fighter command all crews were going to Ploesti, regard- Things began to go very wrong en headquarters, the ad hoc maneuvers were less of the number of missions they had route. being watched and were misinterpreted already flown. “It would take an entire In the lead formation, one aircraft as a masterpiece of strategy—a feint army a year to fight its way up here and inexplicably went into a series of climbs at Bucharest while the main force hit smash this target,” Kane told them. “We and dives that led to its plunge into the Ploesti. are going to do it in a couple of minutes sea. An accompanying aircraft departed Aboard Hell’s Wench, with copilot with less than 2,000 men.” the formation to look for survivors and Jerstad—who had already flown far The attack of the two bomb groups was later unable to rejoin the mission. more than a full tour from Great Brit- paralleled the track of Gerstenberg’s flak In many accounts, the crashed Wingo- ain—Baker led the 93rd into a black train, where the false sides of the cars Wango is reputed to have carried the maelstrom containing a fury of 88 mm disappeared to reveal a mix of batteries lead navigator for the mission, but Col. shells, barrage balloon cables laced with firing at the 98th on the left and 44th on Keith K. Compton, 376th Bomb Group bomblets, and towering chimneys. the right, all flying 50 feet or less above commander, later refuted this. Compton Hell’s Wench took so many hits that the ground. asserted that his aircraft, Teggie Ann, Baker had to jettison his bombs to stay The B-24 gunners responded imme- was in the lead, and its navigator, Capt. airborne. His formation, taking heavy diately, damaging the engine and killing Harold Wicklund (who had flown on the losses as it bombed, turned the Columbia enemy gunners. first Ploesti raid) was lead navigator. Aquila refinery into a mass of smoke Taking hits en route, the two groups Ten other aircraft aborted, and the and flames. Once through the inferno, flew into a pitch-black inferno filled remaining aircraft faced 9,000-foot Baker climbed high enough for some of with bursting flak, barrage balloons, mountain ranges topped with clouds. All his crew to bail out before Hell’s Wench and towering smokestacks. Over the five groups crossed at about 11,000 feet, gave out and plunged to the ground. No target, aircraft were passing in every but began to separate because the two one survived, but Baker and Jerstad direction over and under each other, and lead groups (376th BG and 93rd BG) were posthumously awarded the Medal once again the Germans marveled at the used higher power settings, causing a of Honor for pressing on in the face of precise execution of what they believed major variance in speed. unimaginable fire and for the effort to to be an intricate American plan. As each group passed over the Balkan save their crew. In the midst of the anti-aircraft fire Mountains they descended rapidly, but Two elements of the 93rd, led by two and exploding bombs, some damaged the goal of a solid wave of five groups future Air Force leaders Maj. George S. aircraft plunged to the ground while oth- AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2007 77 tions often included aircraft with one or more engines out—perfect targets for the German, Romanian, and Bulgarian fighters stalking them. In the end, 92 airplanes, many of them badly damaged, reached Benghazi. Nineteen landed at other Allied fields, seven were interned in Turkey, and three were shot down by German fighters, crashing at sea. In the final report, 54 airplanes were lost, of which all but 13 were lost in action. Fully 30 percent of the airmen didn’t make it home that day: Of the original 1,765 airmen who went airborne for the raid, 532 were either dead, prisoners, missing, or interned. While the damage to the refineries was severe, the German ability to repair the A B-24 flies low over “Target White 4,” the Astra Romana refinery. facilities was underestimated. Gerstenberg used reserve capacity ers, fatally wounded, flew on to attempt puncturing his wing tanks and send- and forced labor to quickly restore a forced landing in the countryside. ing a vaporous stream of gasoline Ploesti to its full production. He also Losses were heavy. behind him. Hughes pressed on, wait- obtained reinforcements, knowing that Both Kane and Johnson were awarded ing until his bombardier, 2nd Lt. John the Americans would return. the Medal of Honor for their heroic McLoughlin, dropped the bombs. The When Fifteenth Air Force was en- leadership. Neither man could have been aircraft was ignited by flames from the sconced in Italy, the bombers did return, criticized for diverting to an alternate target.The pilot crashed into a riverbed beginning in April 1944. Now, however, target, given the flames and smoke while attempting an emergency landing. the oil fields were within fighter range. boiling up from their assigned tasks. Hughes and six of his crew were killed, More than 5,400 heavy bomber sorties, Their Liberators lunged ahead, drop- but McLoughlin and two gunners, along with almost 4,000 fighter sorties, ping their bombs on the coveted target, SSgt. Thomas Hoff and SSgt. Edmund were flown against Ploesti, reducing it their 50-caliber machine guns firing to Smith, survived. Hughes received the to rubble. suppress the enemy gunners or ignite fifth Medal of Honor awarded for the The missions ceased when the Soviet storage facilities. mission. Army moved into the area in August Twenty-one of the 44th’s 37 aircraft 1944. All told, the AAF had expended had been assigned to Lt. Col. James Even More Heroes more than 350 aircraft in the series of T. Posey for an attack on the Creditul Another gunner, SSgt. Zerrill Steen, strikes on Ploesti. More than 2,800 air- Minier refinery south of Ploesti. The was a fighting survivor. After his B- men were injured or killed in the effort flak concentrations there had already 24 had crashed, killing the rest of his to shut down the Nazi fuel source. decimated Baker’s 93rd BG, and im- crew, Steen remained at his post, firing The Romanians themselves were mediately poured an avalanche of fire his 50-calibers at the enemy until the disillusioned by the occupying Germans into Posey’s 44th. ammunition was exhausted. Only then and fearful of the Russians. As the The B-24s, some flying so low that did he break out of his turret and climb war was grinding to a close, Lt. Col. their antennae were grass stained, took to relative safety. He was awarded a James A. Gunn, the senior prisoner hits, but their 1,000-pound bombs de- Distinguished Service Cross while still of war in Bucharest, made a two-hour molished the target and they suffered in captivity. flight to Foggia, Italy, in the tiny radio no losses over the target. In the chaos, individual groups of compartment of a specially marked The 389th BG was equally success- battered B-24s were forced to fight off Messerschmitt Bf-109G. The 109 was ful against the Steaua Romana refinery the attacking German and Romanian piloted by a 56-victory Romanian ace, northwest of Ploesti. All 29 B-24s, led fighters. Capt. Constantin Cantacuzino. by Col. Jack Wood, made an attack just More than half the B-24s fortunate There, Gunn made arrangements for as they had practiced back at Benghazi, enough to survive the attack were dam- Operation Reunion, the evacuation of on the correct course and altitude, en- aged, some critically so. They came 1,271 Allied prisoners from Romania abling the bombardiers to pick out their together in small groups for their journey to Italy. They were brought home by a exact aiming points. Four aircraft were home, although some were forced to seek fleet of B-17s—the best possible finale lost over the target, which was so dam- refuge in Turkey. The wounded forma- to a monumental effort. ■ aged that it did not resume production during the war. Walter J. Boyne, former director of the National Air and Space Museum in Wash- Twenty-two-year-old 2nd Lt. Lloyd ington, D. C., is a retired Air Force colonel, author, and member of the National H. Hughes was in the second wave of Aviation Hall of Fame. He has written more than 600 articles about aviation topics the 389th B-24s, screaming in to attack and 50 books, the most recent of which is Soaring to Glory. His most recent article at less than 30 feet above the ground. for Air Force Magazine, “Everything That Rises Must Get Down,” appeared in the His aircraft suffered numerous hits, August issue. 78 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2007