Topic summary
Operation Tidal Wave
United States
Romania
Germany
BulgariaUzal G. Ent
(162 over the target)
16 light/medium AA batteries
57 fighters
(34 claimed in Romania)
55 B-24s damaged
310 aircrew killed or missing
190 aircrew captured or interned
(2 Romanian and 5 German)
11 fighters damaged (2 Romanian and 9 German)
19 dead and 97 wounded
Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania, on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of the "oil campaign" to deny petroleum-based fuel to the Axis powers. The mission resulted in "no curtailment of overall product output".
Due to the number of aircraft available and the long distance, the mission was conceived as low level attack using Consolidated B-24 Liberator with the advantage of surprise against relatively undefended targets. However the aircraft were not designed for low level use and the targets were well defended by many anti-aircraft guns and German and Rumanian fighter squadrons. As a result the operation was one of the costliest for the USAAF in the European Theater, with 53 aircraft - about a third of those committed - and 500 aircrewmen lost. It was proportionally the most costly major Allied air raid of the war, and its date was later referred to as "Black Sunday".
Five Medals of Honor and 56 Distinguished Service Crosses, along with numerous other awards, went to Operation Tidal Wave crew members. A 1999 research report prepared for the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama concluded that the bombing campaign in Ploiești was "one of the bloodiest and most heroic missions of all time". One of the downed American planes crashed into a women's prison in Ploiești, resulting in about half of the civilian casualties from the total of 101 killed and 238 injured.