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

From one of my Ploesti TW books called BOMBER PILOT written by Col.Philip Ardery who flew at Ploesti TW the acft 42-40773I as Co Pilot but as Command Pilot . I found several interesting photos . Phlip was awarded the Silver Star and DSFC for the Tidalwave, AIr Medal 4 times,and French Croix de Guerre for his services in WWII. After the war he returned to practice Law and was president of the Kentucky Heart Association . The photos published are from his book and his courtesy

Bellow Philip as Lt. on the 15th AF 2nd AD

Al

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 19, 2005 02:57 pm

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Here is Phlip again prior TW near his B-24

Al

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Arrival at Benghazi with the 2nd AD

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Here's Phil(in the middle) again with his sqd mates days prior Tidalwave

Al

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 19, 2005 03:03 pm

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Here's Col. Timberlake assigned with 15th AF before assumind the command and prior his promotion to BG

Al

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A spectacular photo of the ASTRA ROMANA bombing

Al

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Bomb hits on STEAU ROMANA near Ploesti photographed from his aircraft

Al

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Explosions of the boiling house and power station after Steau Romana was hit

Al

This post has been edited by alexkdl on January 19, 2005 03:12 pm

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Return of the OLE IRISH from Lybia to UK

Al

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Brig.General Timberlake who assumed 15th AF command hands over decorations at his Hdq after TW

Al

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Tidalwave organisers and commanding officers of the 15th AF 2nd AD group photo taken in UK in 1944. Leon Johnson sitting extreme left....Timerlake sitting extreme right

Al

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Holywood actor Jimmy Stewart seen here as Lt.Col. with his B-24 team in UK ( he was also with the 2nd AD)

Al

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Actually the point with the women in the photo was mostly symbolic.
The point with how much the civilians in Ploesti suffered, especially in 1944, still stands.
In the list with the cities, which I know needs some tens of them to be added, we can mention any time Ploesti and Simeria.

Even though in a country as Romania the civilians were not set as a target, like in Germany or Japan, a lot of "collateral damage" happened. Because there were problems with navigation, orientation and aiming, due to the technological level in the mid-1940's.

It is debatable the impact on the civilians of this raid which is the subject of the topic, but in 1944 it was by far worse.

Simeria, a town in the southern Transylvania, and thus in the part remained to Romania in 1940-1944, happened to have the biggest junction / interconnection of rail tracks in Romania. After Ploesti, it was the preferred target in 1944. The civilians used to seek refuge along the wild shores of river flowing in parallel with the town (beyond the limits of the town).

One late evening, for reasons I forgot, my grandmother remained too much in the house after the alarm sounded to have time to run to the safety of the river wild shore. Because it was too late, she decided to stay home with my mother (a little child then), and accept the risk of being in the town during bombardment. Exactly in that night, the American bombers applied the "carpet bombing", by mistake, beyond the outskirts of the town and far from railroads. The bombs dropped along the river and its wild shores, exactly in the areas were the civilians used to seek refuge. More than 300 people were killed in a single night. One of the worst hit places happened to be the usual refuge chosen by my grandmother (but as I said, not in that night). Compare this number of 300 deaths in one night to a population of a town who could not have more than 10,000 people.

And about Ploesti... A respectable lady living now in the U.S. told me what she could witness when she was a little child, on the streets of Ploesti city, after an usual American bombardment... Human intestines hanging along the fences of the houses, on the street... A severed human leg, still having the boot on the foot, hanging between the telegraph wires, many meters above the street... Human body parts, soaked in blood, everywhere on the streets of the city... She told me that as a child, she was in a continuous state of shock, and the big question is if she ever recovered completely.

This post has been edited by Florin on January 19, 2005 05:30 pm

This problem is very much present in Rumanian publications related to aviation (and not only). Just check out the aviation books published in the past 15 years and see that the source of photos is generally not mentioned (one of the exceptions is Prof. Valeriu Avram - probably the most prolific Rumanian aviation writer alive - who usually tries to mention the source of photos).

As for mentioning the names of the pilots depicted in photos, I tried very hard to identify them and write their names for the posterity (see my Osprey book on Aces, for example). However, I did receive complaints from English-language readers that there are too many photos of airmen (uninteresting for them) and too few of airplanes...

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on January 19, 2005 05:28 pm

For Cipiamon

There is a Trestienii de Sus and a Trestienii de jos in South east of Ploiesti and North east of Bucharest, but nearer Ploiesti than Bucharest. I think that there are less than 15 km from Ploiesti to the two Trestieni villages. There are other four Trestieni but not in Prahova (Buzau, Giurgiu, etc)

Barbosu