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| This web site is deticated to all the crews that have died in B-24s |
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Ploesti A.K.A. Operation Title Wave was a very daring bomber raid, in fact all most suicidal. The Romanian oil fields were a target for Allied bombers for a very long time in World War II. At dawn of August 1-1943 the final Ploesti bombing run was started, there where 24 raids on the oil fields before. The B-24 and their crews with a low level attack for an attack on Hitler’s main oil refinery. The bomber squadrons that were in the bomb run were the bomber groups 456th, 98th, 376th, 44th. All these bomber groups make up the 8th air force. The bomber that went into Ploesti had split up into different squads and came in at different directions to bomb Ploesti. The pilots flew their planes so low that they had to make a steep rise to avoid wires, power cables and other sorts like that. the operation came out to be a successes but not without a heavy price, out of the 178 B-24s that flew into Ploesti only 53 B-24s made it back and out of 1,780 crew members there was 440 KIA with 220 POWED or MIA, only a 1,120 made it back to base. |
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Clips of B-24 bomber assault on the Ploesti oil refinery in Nazi-occupied Romania during WW2. Scenes taken from the 1970s-era TV series "WWII:GI Diary".... The first part of the video is of "Operation Tidal Wave" when long-range B-24 Liberator bombers took off from desert bases in North Africa to hit the refineries--a very costly raid in both aircraft and lives. The later assaults shown were flown by both B-17 and B-24 bombers out of bases in Italy. Quite a bit of video footage from captured German gun cameras showing deadly attacks on American bombers. Youtube clips assembled by Greg Clarke. Note this is roughly 10:00 long. |
The oil refineries in Magdeburg in the part were planned to be attacked on March 2 1945. The oil fields in Magdeburg attacked by the 44th Bomb Group of the 491st. There was a B-24 that was shot down by other B-24s in this tragic accident. There were no enemy fighters in the area when the B-24 rolled in but the flack was very heavy. The bomber crews dropped about 198 bombs on the target area and watched the fire works. One of the planes was last seen spiraling down with parachutes opening, but there was no enemy air craft in the area how strange. |
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Created and maintained by
Sterling Konig, Spring 2008.