TIDAL WAVE

[Malo83]

The great low level raid of August 1, 1943
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK2MZSfqmrg

[Mark Allen M]

About as dangerous a mission one could be assigned during all of the war. Great amount of loss of life and more MOH's given out than I believe any other undertaking during the war. Hero's every one and all.

All the Ploesti missions were extremely difficult.

[phil65]

Why has Hollywood not made a movie about this yet ?

Phil

[maxum96]

Such an iconic photograph. I remember seeing it in the 70's as a kid in a LIFE book about WWII

[Malo83]

Thanks Mark, I was hoping you would chime in with some pics.
http://www.lipper.cc/8th_AF/pages/TidalWaveRoster.html

[CWBuff]

Nice stuff, Mark...

Here's an old post about Tidal Wave from one of my blogs:

http://things-wit-wings.blogspot.com/20 ... unday.html


Fade to Black...

[Mark Allen M]

Your welcome gents and thx for starting a very important thread (IMHO of course) Absolutely imperative to remember this event and these brave hero's as well.






"T.B." = Turned back

[Snake45]

Why has Hollywood not made a movie about this yet ?

Phil

I have boldfaced your answer. Going into detail might get me a time-out here.

BTW, I've read the book Ploesti five or six times. Can't remember the last time, so it might be about time to read it again.

[Mark Allen M]

Hollywood? ... think "Pearl Harbor", think "Red Tails", think "over-CGI'd" ... Then I suppose think Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks so I guess there's always hope.

Anyway, below is B-24D Liberator "Hadley's Harem" 41-24311-L manufactured in 1941.
USAAF 98th Bomb Group "Pyramyders" attacked Ploesti 1 August 1943.
"Hadley's Harem" was the first bomber at the left side of "A Section" commanded by John R. "Killer" Kane.

The Crew:
Pilot Gilbert B. Hadley,
Co-Pilot James R. Lindsay,
Navigator Harold Tabacoff,
Engineer Russell Page,
Bomber Leon Storms,
Communications William Leonard,
Gunner Chistopher Holweger (Ammo),
Gunner Pershing W. Waples,
Gunner Leroy Newton,
Gunner Frank Nemeth.

The Target of the 98th was the biggest petroleum refinery "White Four" named Astro Romana, dangerously protected by stationary AA emplacements and an additional railway AA battery. Due to bad weather above the Adriatic 2 Bomber groups are separated from each other and use their radio which caused high casualties due to alertness of the Germans. A shell entered the nose. Leon Storms died instantly and Navigator Tabacoff injured. Number 2 engine was damaged. Engineer Russell Page manually opened the bomb-bay and released their bombs. The aircraft was heavily damaged so they began their way home towards Benghasi. But soon they realized that they could not make it and changed their route towards the British Airbase at Cyprus by passing over Turkey. Over Anatolia the 3rd engine also quite and the 1st started to lose oil pressure just after the mountains of Toros. They decided to try an emergency landing on the mediterranean shores of Turkey. While descending near Manavgat the both remaining engines quit. With the first touch to the water the plane crashed violently and sunk at once. Both pilots never managed to get out from the sinking aircraft. The remaining crew were rescued and received first aid by nearby Turkish villagers and sent to Istanbul American Hospital (Admiral Bristol). All the remaining crew are taken as "shipwrecked persons" and released by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Many years later the wreckage was found with both Hadley and his co pilots remains still in the cockpit. After the bodies were sent back to the States, the section of the plane that was found was brought up in 1995 and is currently in a Istanbul museum." ... Interesting items and story in the link below.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... -grouping/

[HPDCapt]

I completely forgot about this, thanks for the reminder. I remember Julian Darlington wrote a book about the raid. I read it as a kid and I may have met him. Could anyone tell me what the title was and maybe where I could get a copy?

[SaxMan]

Here are a couple of photos from Al Naum's scrapbook. These photos were taken at Benghazi while training for the Ploesti raid. Naum was crewmember aboard Tupelo Lass. 93th BG, 409 BS

Page_51_copy by onyxsax, on Flickr

Page_52_copy by onyxsax, on Flickr

Brown was the pilot aboard Tupelo Lass. Young was his co-pilot, although Young was moved to a gunner's position for the raid. Over the target Young flipped out and began screaming "We're all going to die". He did calm down, but was never the same after the raid. After he finished his tour in B-24s, he chose to go into fighter training and was sent to a P-38 transition school. On June 6, 1944, while on a cross country flight, he came across a pair of Hurricanes over an RAF base and they went into a mock dogfight. Young went into a split-S at too low of an altitude, crashing into the ground and killing himself.

Though not written on the page, if you look at the lower left of the picture of the Brown crew, you will see Ben Kuroki, who was the engineer on the Tupelo Lass. Kuroki was the only Japanese American to see combat with the AAF.

McFarland and Podgurski were, of course, the pilot and co-pilot of the Liberty Lad, the last B-24 to return to home base after the raid. The plane lost both starboard engines over the Adriatic. B-24s aren't supposed to fly that way, but with a combination of teamwork, pure grit, and physical endurance, McFarland and Podgurski muscled the plane home. Both had to be lifted out of the cockpit they had so exerted themselves.

Podgurski would finish his tour with the 93rd and then went on to fly C-87s and CB-24s with the 27th Air Transport Group. After stateside leave, he went to the Pacific, flying B-24s with the 308th and 494th BG in 1945. He mustered out in 1946, was recalled during 1948 (we don't know what the circumstances were) and released from service in January 1949. From there, he went to school to be an engineer, but decided that he truly wanted to fly, so he obtain his civilian license and went to work as a First Officer for Capital Airlines in 1952. In June 1957, he had enough seniority to be upgraded to a Captain, which was perfect timing as him and his wife were expecting their third child. Podgurski never got to meet his son. On June 22, 1957, on a routine training flight for the upgrade to Captain, the DC-3 he was flying stalled and spun in, killing Podgurski, Robert K. Thomas, another trainee, and the instructor pilot, Carl Burke.

It seems incomprehensible that someone who survived what was one of the deadliest missions of the entire war would die on a sunny day on an otherwise routine training flight. Sometimes, life just isn't fair.

[Mark Allen M]

Not to steer away from the meaning of this thread, but anyone notice something unusual about the B-24 in the first two photos?

[dbrown]

I was at an airshow in the early 80's in Denver and Diamond Lil was on the tarmac with a bunch of people waiting to go through the tour.

Standing off to the side was a guy that stood about 5 foot tall, just staring at where the ball turret would be (Lil had none). He had not moved for probably 20 minutes when I got there to take pics of the tail and we caught eyes and he told me that he was imagining where the ball turret would be on the plane. I asked him if he flew in B-24's and he said he was a ball turret gunner and was in his turret on the Ploesti low level raid.

He said he could still hear and see the images of corn hitting his turret as they flew low level after attacking the refinery. He noted that they took a few small holes from flack hits but that the pilot basically flew low enough that, in his mind, they missed getting targeted. He was visibly shaken, and then it became all too plausible to me given his small stature - he in my mind certainly fit the 'profile' of a ball turret gunner.

That encounter has stuck with me for the last 30 or so years. Never got his name or even if he lived in Denver. I wished I would have. I said something cheesy like 'glad you could come out to the show' and then went on my way taking pictures.

Always wished I could have traced him back to a plane.

DB
Denver CO

[dbrown]

Not to steer away from the meaning of this thread, but anyone notice something unusual about the B-24 in the first two photos?

National Insignia ?

First Ploesti raiders would not have had the bars. (and the red surround to boot)

DB

[Snake45]

Not to steer away from the meaning of this thread, but anyone notice something unusual about the B-24 in the first two photos?

National Insignia ?

First Ploesti raiders would not have had the bars. (and the red surround to boot)

DB

The bars with red surround came in in June '43, so it's possible that some of the 1 Aug Raiders could have had them.