In August 1943, Operation Tidal Wave was carried out by bombers from the United States of America, which is rightfully considered one of the two most unsuccessful strategic aviation campaigns in the entire Second World War, both in terms of losses and results achieved. Its target was the Romanian oil industry in Campina, Ploiesti and Brasi, which provided fuel to Hitler and his European allies. From the Axis countries, fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft guns from Germany, Romania and Bulgaria participated in the battle.
Romania has been considered a major oil-producing power since the 19th century. During the Second World War, according to some sources, up to 30% of all oil in the Axis countries. The first air raids on Romania began to be carried out from the Crimean airfields by Soviet aviation in June 1941. Among the destroyed or damaged Romanian objects in the reports were the Charles I Bridge and the oil storage in Constanta. Such attacks continued for two more months, until the disaster on the fronts made them impossible.
Soon the Anglo-American allies began to think about destroying the oil wealth of the Reich. On June 13, 1942, almost a year after the first Soviet attack, 13 B-24 Liberator bombers attacked Ploiesti. The main effect of the plaque was not damage to industrial facilities, which turned out to be extremely small, but the fact that Berlin was seriously concerned about the safety of its source of black gold. Under the leadership of General Alfred Gerstenberg, who led the Luftwaffe mission in Romania since 1938, one of the most powerful air defense systems in Europe was erected in this country. It included hundreds of guns of only large and small caliber, as well as 52 Bf-109 and Bf-110 fighters, plus a number of Romanian IAR 80 fighters.
The brunt of the new raid was to be borne by the 9th and 8th US Air Force. It was supposed to go to the target at low altitude so as not to be detected by German radars. Since they had to start already from Libyan Benghazi, the engineers faced the problem of increasing the capacity of the fuel tanks to 3100 liters by reducing the bomb load. It was supposed to cross the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, pass over the Greek Corfu, Albania and Yugoslavia, while not getting caught by the German reconnaissance stations located in southern Greece. The mission of the American pilots seemed frankly suicidal even for their own command, which completely allowed the death of more than 50% of the vehicles during the mission.
In the early morning of August 1, 177 bombers took off from Libyan airfields and headed for Romania. On the way, the Americans faced numerous breakdowns, navigation errors and other non-combat troubles. Nevertheless, the planes, for the most part, achieved their goals. Bombs dropped from low altitude in an instant turned the Romanian oil facilities into a sea of fire. Clouds of fire and smoke rose hundreds of meters. The distance to the ground turned out to be so small that the arrows of the bombers entered into direct firefights with the anti-aircraft gunners. The few photographs of that raid that have survived to this day are quite eloquent.
As a result of the raid, the United States of America lost 53 vehicles and 660 crew members, of which 310 were killed in action, 108 captured, 78 interned in Turkey, and 4 fell to the Yugoslav partisans. The fate of the machines was also very different. Some of them remained lying on the Romanian fields, several fell into the Mediterranean Sea, 15 bombers were shot down by the Bulgarian Air Force.
The effect of the bombing has proven to be highly controversial. Modern historians differ in their assessments here. Some argue that the Romanian oil industry never recovered from the blow until the end of the war. Others report that after the hastily carried out restoration, the yield of raw materials even increased, which generally calls into question the meaning of the raid.
In memory of those events today, on October 15, 2015, the Americans carried out Operation Tidal Wave 2 also against the oil infrastructure, but already as part of a campaign of military and economic isolation of the Islamic State (ISIS) banned in Russia. The effect of this raid was also highly controversial. As you know, ISIS's oil infrastructure has been successfully functioning to this day.
