Operation Tidal Wave

Operation Tidal Wave
	Part of Western Allied Campaign in Romania
	; A B-24 Liberator called Sandman during a bomb run over the Ploiești Astra Română refinery during Operation Tidal Wave
Date	1 August 1943
Location	Romanian refineries: Câmpina, Ploiești, Brazi44°56′N 26°1′E
Result	Axis victory
Belligerents
United States	Romania; Germany; Bulgaria
Commanders and leaders
Lewis H. Brereton; Uzal G. Ent	Alfred Gerstenberg; Gheorghe Jienescu
Strength
177 B-24s; (162 over the target)	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

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. The mission resulted in "no curtailment of overall product output".

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, 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. 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". 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.

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