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

Currently on eBay a photograph depicting a 376th Bomb Group B-24D Liberator just after its return from Operation Tidal Wave.

Gen. Dénes

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Thanks fpr posting it Denes

Alex

To ALL TW readers

While on M.Hill " BLACK SUNDAY " was indicated that the entire crew of MATERNITY WARD has perished while crashing into the Ionian Sea ....both pilots have survived the crash, were transffered after a while to Saloniki to the German SS given British uniforms from captive British soldiers and put on a train to Frankfurt for STALAG LUFT III in SAGAN Poland 160 KM from Berlin

If you remember the film THE GRET ESCAPE with Steve McQueen produced by Holywood on the 60's ...thats the place based on which the film reconstructed this great escape, that's the place both pilots spend the rest of the war at .


For the next 2 years the 2 pilots of MATERNITY WARD lived through every kind of hardship associated with POW detention in Germany ...hunger, freezing, marches in the dead of winter ,sickness , fear and anexity and were not as fortunate as the other TW prisoners who enjoyed a good treatment in Rumania .

The strength of these two man endured however and when Allied Forces invaded Germany and liberated the camps Lt.John Vernon Ward and Lt.Andrew Anderson were free men and weeks later put foot on American soil again

Bellow , Lt Andrew Anderson CPLT of the MATERNITY WARD photographed at the STALAG LUFT III ( on the left) ...from the book Final Flight of Maternity Ward by M.M.Aronowitz

To my US TW friends...what happened to both pilots in due course of the years ?

This post has been edited by alexkdl on February 24, 2005 04:40 pm

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Alex ,


Hi I am Rick Brower and I knew Lt Anderson family, I think Andrew is still alive and while I wasn't yet in contact with you regarding the TW Forum I need to thank you for posting the stuff about Andrew. I may be able to get you post WWII photos of Andrew but that will take a while.

On an other context I love the Great Escape, do you by chance know who was the US POW escapee Steve McQueen was playing on that picture at Luft Stalag III camp ? I remember his Harely bike ride near Swiss border .

Rich.Brower
Pompton Lakes, NJ
USA
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Dick

Thanks for your message, any info you can send me on the post WWII destinity of Andrew and Lt Ward will be greatly appreciated, my yahoo TW mates didn't either.

Ultimately I am sorry but I can not tell you whos US escapee of Luftstalag III Steve was its counterpart ....

However attached is a photo of Steve Mcqueen I've got many years ago from him personally while he flew on my DC-9-50 , the photo was taken in Bavaria during the production ( an not near Swiss border as many commonly were thinking of ) while he worn this Whermacht uniform on his last escape attempt....In reality I don't think that none of the escapees ever reached Swiss borders.....and some of the identities played on this motion picture are fictious. Also the life at Luft STALAG III was anything but as portrayed at the GREAT ESCAPE because unlike the motion picture they POW's had serious problems with food supplies and many didnt even live in barracks but tenths ( see the photo above) .....nevertheless long live Holywood .

Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on February 24, 2005 04:39 pm

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Dick

here is one more photo I found at Ebay on the GREAT ESCAPE motion picture from Luftstalag III where Lt Ward and Lt Anderson spent their captivity,depicting Steve on a unknown type of of motocycle ( not Harley)

Alex

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oldbludgeon,
unless your name isn't John L. Frisbee, I expect you to provide the source of the article you posted in this thread. I have edited the post to include the url to the Air Force Association site, where the article was originally published.

Here are some more footages of Ploesti Tidal Wave

Are you sure that this photo represent a B24 D?
QUOTE=C-2,Dec 7 2004, 07:50 PM] I saw some time ago,at Medin Robanescu's office,a great T.wave photo:
A B 24 who made a belly landing and somehow stall at some moment and got his nose into the muddy groung and his tail up.Big as a house!. [/QUOTE]
Here are some more footages of Ploesti Tidal Wave

Cannot be 100% sure.
It was a wreck..

The book called WING AND A PRAYER of the pilot of the UTAH MAN is on its way to me from the US ( this book has been out of print for quite a while) its promises a lot of yet unseen TW photos

Alex

Has anyone read this book? Is it related to the Tidal Wave?



Gen. Dénes

Denes

On previous messages I posted info from this book about Col.Gunn...me and Dan have this book

Alex

Hi all,
i received yesterday the permission to post more pictures with 1/48 scale model of Boiler Maker II in ARR service - Liberator I. The model builder is Cornel Nastase.
The model is now at National History Museum in Bucharest.



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