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

dear barbosu,
two books that may be of interest to you and your research:

TITLE:OUT OF THE ITALIAN NIGHT:WELLINGTON BOMBER OPERATIONS 1944-45

BY :MAURICE G.LIHOU
PUBLISHER:THE CROWOOD PRESS
ISBN:1840374055


TITLE:IT'S DICEY FLYING WIMPY'S(AROUND ITALIAN SKY'S)
OPERATIONS WITH 205 GROUP,1944-45

BY:MAURICE G.LIHOU
PUBLISHER:AIR RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS
ISBN:1871187249

good luck and keep up the excellent work
kindest regards
andrew jones

The american bomber crews are heroes, even if they atacked Romaina, no matter who they killed, at least acording to the recent monument in Cismigiu.

If the B29 Enola Gay wold it been shot down after the Hiroshima nuclear explosion i am sure the Japonese would it rise a nice monument depicting the efort of the poor B29 crews trying to install the corect doctrine, cleaning Japan. Maby, at leat we would.

This post has been edited by cipiamon on January 03, 2006 11:20 pm

John D. Palm

Pilot of The Brewery Wagon (Serial Number 41-24294) Shot down by fighters during the August 1, 1943, Low Level Ploesti Mission.





Source: http://www.376hbgva.com/men/palm.html

Yes, probably for you, because for the victims of the bombing i`m sure they`re not...; the same thing happend with romanian soldier fighting in russia, considered heroes by the romanians who lived in bucovina and basarabia; after romania allied with ussr, they were judged because their heroic fight against them.....so, depends on what side of the fence you are....

I was able to take pictures of the Hadley's Harem wreck while I was in Turkey - I'll post the link this weekend.


Matt

The womens ( one in black probably widow) from the nearby village looking with compassion to the tragic scene of the B-24 wrecks thinking about their husbands on russians front.

Maybe they were thinking about the countless Romanian civilians (women and children) killed by the B-24 bombers in Ploesti area.
In the previous 781 posts under this topic, nobody wrote even one word about the nightmare and inferno endured by the civilians of Ploesti, courtesy of the U.S.A.F. bombers, in 1943 and 1944.

I am very surprised that nobody is mentioning the victims of savage USAF raids over Bucharest on April 4th 1944.
Matache Market place and surroundings -14.000 victims.
Gara de Nord-North Railway Station-9.000 victims.Majority of the victims the refugees from Moldova and Bassarabia.
The tradition of that american bravery is alive even today.
Thank you,dc.
P.S.I was there and I witnessed the massacre.

Gentlemen

it has to be remembered that during WW2, there were no precision guided bombs as we know today, no laser range-finding devices, etc.

Under countless bombing raids mounted by all nations in WW2 there were thousands of civilian casualties, this is a FACT, I am surprised at people trying to guess what was in the minds of people seen in pictures, we will never know.

Point of fact, the American / British / German / Russian / Japanese bomber crews were sent on their missions and they did their jobs, it probably seemed a clean war to them for many never knew the devastation caused by their bombs, they took off on their missions, flew to the target areas, dropped their loads, and then began the long flight home (there were no tv film crews around to broadcast the damage caused by their mission as today) when they got home they were debriefed, related to friends about the planes they saw go in after being hit by flack, or fighters, made an estmaton of the damage they did, and probably 48 hours later were heading back out on another mission.

This Air War was a far different war from the Infantryman and tanker etc. on the ground who saw from day to day the destruction & horror all around them.

So for us to speculate about the actions / thoughts of the people on the ground and in the aircrews is just that, pure speculation and not historic fact, some people in these posts seem carry a grudge against the people who flew the missions, which wont change the fact of what is done is done, the aircrews were doing their job, they never knew or saw the after effects to the civilian population on the ground, all they knew was, that they were going to hit an enemy petrol & oil instalation, they were told that by hitting the target, it would stop the nazi war machine and help win the war. And I doubt if any gave much thought about it. In the military you are taught to follow orders and thats what they did.

For them, no matter what nationality, it was a plain and simple job.

Kevin in Deva

This post has been edited by New Connaught Ranger on September 15, 2006 05:08 pm

I think calling the USAAF terorists because their bombs missed the railways and hit the neighbourhood found only meters away from it, is at least silly. If you don't belive me just go on Basarb bridge and look down on Grivita Bd. to see how far away from the railways are the houses and immagine you try to hit that from 8000m alt...

We are offtopic, but i must say that not only the Grivita neigborhgood was badly hit that day, so was all the V, N-V and most of the center of Bucharest. In Military region was also a disaster. Some people can't blame them, they did theyr job, at least they bomb some of the city...

Germans also bombed Buc.
And civilian targets.
How schould we call the German pilots?

Hello to All!
My name is Doc and I am a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. I am attempting to learn more about Lt. William K. Little, a member of the 93rd that died several days later in the Sinaia Military Hospital as a result of the raid over Ploesti, Romania on 1 august 1943.
Last year I took a delegation of Students to Sinaia, Romania to participate in the ITI/UNESCO Chair of Theatre Workshops of Drama Schools. While I was there I located the Hero’s cemetery in Sinaia. I recently received an email from the Hero’s memorial group in Romania showing what appears to be a grave for this brave American in Sinaia. However, the US records show him as buried in France:
William K. Little
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Service # O-728290
409th Bomber Squadron, 93th Bomber Group, Heavy
Entered the Service from: Tennessee
Died: 8-Aug-43
Buried at: Plot E Row 43 Grave 15
Lorraine American Cemetery
St. Avold, France
Awards: Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Purple Heart
I am again returning to Romania this summer with another group of students and plan to conduct more research on this cemetery and this Airman. Is there any information that you can provide or anyone that might have flown with him? I am hoping to write an article about this Airman and this cemetery.
I see that he was the bombardier on the Honkey Tonk Girl and died as a POW in Romania. I spent all of last night reading all the posts of this thread and was so very excited to find his photo with his crew and the aircraft. I am interested in contacting the remaining crew or anyone that may have known him.

Also looking for information on the Military hospital in Sinaia, Does it still stand? Where was it located in Sinaia. I am also interested in accounts of the POW prison in Sub-Lagarule Timis, Timisul De Jos or Largarule Prizoiniero #2, 13, 14, 18?

I believe other members of Lt. William K. Little’s air crew were held in those two camps.Any info would be appreciated and would add to the body of knowledge on these missions.

Hi to all dear forum visitors,
Incidentially I found this nice forum where

my favourite topic(WW2 aviation fights in

Balkan area especially the Tidal wave

operation and all raids on

Ploesti/Bucarest) is discussed.I am son of

the bulgarian ace St. Stoyanov

(http://vstoyano.sky.prohosting.com ) who

had his victories against the allied

aircrafts going to and from Rumania in 43-

44. I will appreciate much any photos,

stories /in English or German/ etc. about

this aerial war in rumanian sky. I have

some idea about this from several books I

read issued in USA about Ploesti missions

of allied airforces, but that is not enough

to me.
Greetings to all!
Vesselin Stoyanov , mail: famstoyanov@abv.bg

REMEMBER!

1 aug 1943-1 aug 2008.
65 years.
RIP

Tidal Wave in the December 2007 issue of AFM:

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineA...07/1207wave.pdf

If you are implying that San Antonio is the birth place of Lloyd Herbert "Pete" Hughes, then you are mistaken. According to his Statement of Military Service, he was born in Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, USA.
www.rajordan.com/pete/19590529-service.html

Also, while it is certainly possible that the U. S. Military lied to the public, the official announcement was that they brought Pete's remains back to the USA for burial. They reburied Pete on 12 Apr 1950 in Plot 53, Section U, Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, USA.

www.rajordan.com/pete/gravemarker.html

Lloyd Hughes' full name is Lloyd Herbert Hughes, (not Lloyd D.) Friends and family called him "Pete." His "Statement of Military Service" is here:
http://www.rajordan.com/pete/19590529-service.html

One of the survivors of Uncle Pete's crew, Tail Gunner Thomas A. Hoff, insists that "Eager Eagle" was NEVER one of the names they considered for their plane. The co-pilot, Ronald L. Helder, wrote a letter to his parents dated 31 Jul 1943 saying that they named their plane "Ole Kickapoo."
http://www.rajordan.com/pete/19430731-letter.html