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| WorldWar2.ro Forum > ARR - Romanian Royal Aeronautics > SSI intelligence about Tidal Wave? |
| Posted by: Beta January 30, 2012 02:31 pm |
| Did the SSI (Romania's Special Intelligence Service) have intelligence about the operation Tidal Wave, one week before the attack?! What kind of intelligence (date, targets, attacking force etc.) and from what source? I found this sentence on the Wikipedia page, written in Romanian, dedicated to Eugen Cristescu, the director or SSI: "One of SSI's great achievements was finding the date of the American raid against Ploiesti - August 1st 1943 - one week before it actually took place." Cool thing is that, in the English version of that Wikipedia page, dedicated to Cristescu, this piece of information, regarding SSI, is missing. The Romanian version's source might be a book written by Cristian Troncota - Eugen Cristescu, the ace of the Romanian intelligence services... |
| Posted by: Fratello January 30, 2012 09:04 pm |
| I recomand you Mihai Pelin's book ''Raidul escadrei tradate", Editura Elion, Bucuresti, 2005. |
| Posted by: yugit January 30, 2012 10:41 pm |
| From my point of view and past 19 years of research on both low and high level raids, the Ops Tidalwave destination was not known till the last moment. Yes there were speculations before, yes Rommel infiltrated agents at the briefing at Berka, yes there were 3 Rommel meteo specialists left behind near Berka for intel gathering. Only after they reached the Radar station Pernik/Rezen Bulgaria their intentions were really clear. I disagree that the Rumanian SS knew in advance about the raid and anyone who claiming that is just attempting to revise the history. As strange as it may sound the single book which is closer to reality regarding the low level is " Welcome in hell " by Georgescu . |
| Posted by: Beta February 06, 2012 07:57 pm | ||
I understand there has already been a discussion about this book, on this forum: http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=2616 |
| Posted by: Beta February 07, 2012 05:10 pm |
| I haven't found Mihai Pelin's book yet, but I read one of his articles in Historia, called The bombing of Ploiesti, from disinformation to the truth (http://www.historia.ro/exclusiv_web/actualitate/articol/bombardarea-ploiestilor-dezinformare-adevar#): The imminence of the U.S. air raid has been signaled to the upper echelons of the Romanian Army, in a credible form, only in the report from July 26, 1943, by the Special Intelligence Service in Bucharest. On July 28, in turn, lieutenant colonel Gheorghe Robescu and captain aviator Ceausu Titus, from the 2nd Section of the Air Force, have released a warning lacking any doubt: "An informant in Turkey, with good connections in the Allied diplomatic circles there - as their report no. D 2241 shows - after a conversation he had had with an Englishman working in the British Consulate in Istanbul, announced that we should expect the bombing of our oil fields, very soon. "And on July 30, 1943, SSI has issued a new report, entitled laconic as usual: "Turkey. About the possibility of the bombing of our oil fields. Following the announcements in our report on July 26, 1943 - as this document mentions - from a source with good opportunities to investigate within the competent Anglo-American circles in Turkey, we received a piece of intelligence that the Americans intend to bomb the Prahova Valley, soon." So we have knowledge of three reports, from July 26th, 28th and 30th, 1943, written by the SSI and the 2nd Section of the Air Force... Could this be true? |
| Posted by: bansaraba February 08, 2012 10:09 pm |
| Could the source be the famous Cicero? |
| Posted by: Beta February 09, 2012 05:09 pm | ||
If you can read Mihai Pelin's article, you'll find that Elyesa Bazna (Cicero) began to collaborate with the German attaché, Ludwig Carl Moyzisch, only after October 26th, 1943. Mihai Pelin also says that the SSI and the 2nd Section of the Air Force had different sources. |