Tidal Wave Footage Photos, 15th AAF and Luftwaffe, 'Black Sunday', 1 August 1943

ZOMBIE of the 415 Sqd didnt not particpate at Ploesti as was lost a prior flight to Catania, Italy

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Final flight of THE BOIL MAKER II before become the property of ARR .This photos shows BM II enroute to Ploesti

from F F M W

This post has been edited by alexkdl on February 12, 2005 05:53 pm

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The BOIL MAKER II last photo at Benghazi still owned by 15th AF . A day later would become the property of ARR

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The FERILE MIRTLE prior PLOESTI at Bengazi

from FFMTW

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Ploesti RECON photo of the 15th given to the crews

from FFMW

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An unknown Liberandos goes down at PLOESTI , photos not seen yet anywhere....Bob, Pat, Steeve, Joe is this depicted B-24 at Ploesti or elsewhere ?

Edited : To all people contacting me on this photo, I know is not a TW aircraft because is silver ,it is however mentioned and printted at the TW Mate.Ward Ploesti section of the book without further details.

I'm very much aware, it could well be a B-24 of the 466th or 491st Bomb Groups of the 8th AF with nose turret.....but who knows...that's why I posted the photo to gather deatils !

from FFMTW

This post has been edited by alexkdl on February 14, 2005 12:22 pm

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A photo not published yet on other books, shows the refinaries on flames....on the right hand corner on top of the smoke a B-24 seen flying straight into the smoke

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Lt Andrew Andersen the Co Pilot of MATERNITY WARD shot down over the Ionian Sea by the Luftwaffe 8 out of 10 were killed.The aircraft was flown to Ploesti by Lt Jon V Ward and crew of 10. Briefed to fly Nr 3 in the 4th wave attacking WHITE IV. Damaged by flack Nr 3 engine hit and lost position on the formation falling behind.

Intercepted by Luftwaffe ME-109G of the IV/JG27 over the Ionian Sea and set on fire on the bomb bay are. Some of the crews known to have been injured before the aircraft crashed into the water. Only Lt Ward and Co Pilot F/O Andrew Anderson survived and spent the next 15 days on their life raft getting tanned and eating food rations ,waiting fore rescue ...before driftting ashore to Kithira,Greece...where they were taken POW. The photo was taken in 1942 during pilot training in October


If anyone seeing this from 44th, 376th,93rd , 389th and 98th ...please let me know about their faith !

Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on February 12, 2005 06:46 pm

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a photo which speaks for itself

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Return of TW and and other Ploesti bombings POW's seen here at Popesti

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You don't have to contact a station to get a radio direction finder
"fix", UNLESS the station doesn't continuously transmit. You can get a fix
from ANY transmitting station, such as a commercial station that broadcasts
music or news. All you need in a directional antenna and a compass
(equipment built in to ships and airplanes). A smart radio operator (or
navigator) should get several fixes to correctly triangulates their
position. The big problem, which happened to Lady Be Good is, the
directional antenna doesn't tell you if you're heading TOWARD the
transmitter, or AWAY from it (assuming you're travelling in the
transmitter's radial direction). Lady Be Good apparently flew almost
directly over their home base and 200 miles into the desert beyond.

Blinker is a spotlight with a trigger switch used to send morse code
light signals between ships and/or planes. It was used, I believe, by Earl
Zimmerman to communicate with the Mooney plane on their journey to Turkey
outbound from Ploesti.


Steve Smith in NM
son of C-54 radio operator (CBI)

Dear Earl and Norm K:

I was re-reading Earl's remarks about "Lady Be Good" and some RO memos from
the war, and had a few questions for you combat radio operators:

If it was standard to keep the IFF switched on all the time, then I presume
it couldn't be detected by the enemy?

What was the procedure for contacting a radio station to receive an RDF
heading? Earl, you pointed out that the "Lady Be Good" radioman couldn't tune in
on an RDF station, because no radio stations were on the air all the time
(which would lead the enemy in). Does that mean you would normally transmit a
message first, on a pre-assigned frequency, to raise a response from the RDF
station? I gather you had to be sure you were transmitting on exactly the correct
frequency, or the ground station wouldn't hear you...

In Sgt. McKenna's notes, I see the following passages of interest (caps his):

"THE COMMAND SET WAS USED ONLY IN ACTUAL COMBAT OR WHEN THEY WERE DROPPING BOMBS. RADIO SILENCE ALSO PERTAINED TO THE COMMAND SET ENROUTE TO AND FROM THE TARGET. THE BLINKER WAS USED TO CHALLENGE SHIPS AND TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF WHEN APPROACHING ANY BASE."

What was the "blinker" he refers to?

"GENERAL DUTIES OF A COMBAT OPERATOR... (AMONG THEM) TO CHECK THE
SERVICEABILITY OF ALL RADIO EQUIPMENT IN THE AIRPLANES BEFORE TAKE OFF WITHOUT GOING ON THE AIR WITH EITHER LIAISON OR COMMAND TRANSMITTER. WHEN I MENTIONED RADIO SILENCE, I MEANT EVEN ON THE GROUND BEFORE TAKE OFF. THERE SHOULDN'T BE EVEN ONE TRANSMITTER ON UNTIL YOU HAVE REACHED THE TARGET. THERE IS PLENTY OF TIME TO
TUNE THE TRANSMITTER JUST BEFORE USE. WE HAVE DEVELOPED A METHOD OF TUNING WHICH IS VERY GOOD AND ONLY TAKES ABOUT 15 SECONDS."

As you know, some people feel that the ROs "tuning up" before takeoff on the
Tidal Wave mission may have been one of the tip-offs to the Luftwaffe that a
big raid was coming. Nevertheless, were there actually many ROs who waited
until they were almost at the target before tuning their transmitter?

"AFTER THE INTERPHONE CHECK THE OPERATOR WILL STAND BY ON THE LIAISON FREQUENCY AND MAINTAIN A CONTINUOUS WATCH. HE WILL REPORT ALL MESSAGES TO THE PILOT OF THE AIRPLANE. THIS WATCH MUST BE MAINTAINED AT ALL TIMES EXCEPT WHEN ACTUALLY ENGAGING THE ENEMY, AT WHICH TIME, OF COURSE, ALL GUNS MUST BE MANNED."

This explains why Col. Compton's RO didn't hear the cries of "Wrong Turn!" on
TW -- his receiver wasn't tuned to the Command frequency, and evidently
nobody in the "Teggie Ann" cockpit was monitoring the Command channel, either.

"AT THE DISCRETION OF HIS PILOT OR BY ORDERS FROM GROUP AND HIGHER
HEADQUARTERS IT WOULD BE PERMISSIBLE TO SEND WEATHER OR OTHER PERTINENT INFORMATION IN REGARDS TO THE TARGET AREA. BY THIS I MEAN THAT RADIO SILENCE MAY BE BROKEN AS THE ENEMY ALREADY KNOWS YOU ARE THERE. THIS MAY ALSO BE SENT IN THE CLEAR AS YOU ARE NOT PUTTING OUT ANY INFORMATION THAT THE ENEMY DOESN'T ALREADY KNOW."

Considering that there is probably some wiggle-room in the definition of
"target area," I'd say that the above statement indicates that the TW airmen who
transmitted the "Wrong Turn!" message weren't directly disobeying orders.
Since they were already on their bomb run (or hoped they were), it could be
assumed that the Romanian defenders knew the TW force was on the scene. Same goes for Gen. Ent's (or Compton's?) transmission of the "Mission Successful" message.

Any thoughts appreciated --

Regards,
Al S.

Hello Alex,

Thanks for posting them on your site. The photos of
the BOMERANG aerials were provided by Kent Jacquith,
and the RED ASS photos were sent to me by Art
Ferwerda. They should get the credit.

Regards,
Joe Gonzales
San Antonio, Texas

Just a short question off topic, can you ask Dobran on how long had to train Buzu on P-51 before taking it to Popesti...Buzu left Foggia just after 3 days ! I can imagine that Dobran knew about the 1 B-24 , I guess everyone else knew it too....question what is Dobran personal opinion about the Taran and the fact the all 15th AF vets and historians do not account him for any B-24

Al

Bazu didn't needed any special instruction for flying the P 51.
Some brief before take off.
That's all he needed.

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Re: Crash landing photo (pg 98 of website):

What a dramatic photo! The B-24 looks like a silver one, most likely a later model with the nose turret. It may be in the Ploesti area or wherever, but it's probably not on the Tidal Wave mission unless what I see in the picture is wrong.

This site contains such amazing pictures and very good discussion. Thanks to you all.


-- Steve Smith in NM, USA
(my first post)