36 heavy AA batteries 16 light/medium AA batteries 57 fighters
Casualties and losses
53 B-24s destroyed (35 claimed in Romania) 55 B-24s damaged 310 aircrew killed or missing 190 aircrew captured or interned
7 fighters destroyed (2 Romanian and 5 German) 11 fighters damaged (2 Romanian and 9 German) 19 dead and 97 wounded
101 civilians killed and 238 injured
v
t
e
Romanian military actions in World War II
Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
Diosig
Treznea
As part of the Axis (1941–1944)
Bucharest
Constanța
München
Uman
Odessa
Azov
Sevastopol
Rostov
Kerch
Kharkov
Blue
Edelweiss
Stalingrad
Uranus
Winter Storm
Little Saturn
Western Allied Campaign in Romania (Tidal Wave, Bucharest)
Kerch-Eltigen
Dnieper
Dnieper–Carpathian
Uman–Botoșani
1st Jassy–Kishinev
Crimea
Lublin–Brest
2nd Jassy–Kishinev
As part of the Allies (1944–1945)
Turda
Păuliș
Debrecen
Budapest
Bratislava–Brno
Prague
Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of the "oil campaign" to deny petroleum-based fuel to the Axis powers.[4] The mission resulted in "no curtailment of overall product output".[6]
This operation was one of the costliest for the USAAF in the European Theater, with 53 aircraft and 500 aircrewmen lost. It was proportionally the most costly major Allied air raid of the war,[7] and its date was later referred to as "Black Sunday". Five Medals of Honor and 56 Distinguished Service Crosses along with numerous other awards went to Operation Tidal Wave crew members.[8] A 1999 research report prepared for the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama concluded that the bombing campaign in Ploiești was "one of the bloodiest and most heroic missions of all time".[9] One of the downed American planes crashed into a female prison in Ploiești, resulting in about half of the civilian casualties from the total of 101 killed and 238 injured.[10]
^Cite error: The named reference Stout was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Dugan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"AAFRH-3, pp. 31–47"
^ ab"When Heroes Filled The Sky". homeofheroes.com. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
^Cite error: The named reference Fili was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference WesternAxis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Axworthy 1995, p. 311.
^"The Hall of Valor Project". The Hall of Valor Project. Military Times. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
^Schultz 2007, p. xii.
^"Raport Subsecretariat de Stat al Aerului". iar80flyagain.org (in Romanian). 2023-05-17.
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