Ploesti Raid

[alinro1000]

Ploiesti my city :D

[madcitymcflyer]

The initial raid, known as 'Operation Tidal Wave', conducted by the 44thBG, 93rd BG, & the 389th BG of the 8th AF, & the 98th BG & the 376th BG of the 9th AF was flown on August 1, 1943. It sustained the worst loss in any single mission of WW II. It attacked the most heavily defended target in all of Europe, resulting in the loss of 72 of the attacking 178 B-24's and the loss 496 killed, captured or interned crew. Output at the six refineries was back to 100% on-line in only six weeks.

[redzlb]

my father flew in this campaign and was a hero and survived

[lagrangequadder]

My grandfather was a nose gunner in a B24. He flew 50 missions with the 15th Air Force, 459th Bombardment Group stationed in the medditeranean. Not sure exaclty but almost certain that he participated on this raid. He was one of the original members of the group.

[muscogeemike]

FYI - the first USAAF raid on Ploesti was 14 months (June 1942) befor this one.

[EricBBrandon1]

My father, at the end of the war, was tasked with recovering the remains of the downed airmen, and trying to locate any prisoners....which most all of them had been violently executed. He, in partnership with the OSS, interrogated witnesses, and was able to bring several individuals to justice in the war crime trials. He also established the cemetery for the downed airmen from the mission. When I was 9, I discovered the photo album of the pictures of the remains of the airmen! Nightmares!

[jcso609]

@EricBBrandon1 didn't know there were photos. I lost a relative on Tidalwave. Would kive to see any info. Is it online?

[sagapotyna]

I'm living in PLOIESTI (ploesti) and I can tell you, in 1943 the city was defended better than Berlin!

[RamirezGates]

I have a list of the 51 bombing missions my dad flew during WWII. He was on a mission to Ploesti, Rumania on 10 August 1944. For the history buffs out there, he was part of the US 15th Air Force, 301st Bombardment Squadron, 32nd Bomb Group. His position was waist gunner on a B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber. He was stationed in N. Africa & Italy. Not sure which of those locations he flew from, but the list shows it was an 8 hour & 15 minute flight. Pop is 88 years old now.

[m9078jk3]

@RamirezGates  I think you mean the 301st Bombardment Group (Heavy) 32nd Bombardment Squadron.

I know a navigator from the 301st BG.By the way my father was on that very same mission too on that date Aug 10 1944 over Ploesti but in a different Bombardment Group the 463rd BG.The 5th Bombardment Wing of B-17's comprised the 2nd,97th,99th,301st,463rd and 483rd bomb groups.For the Aug 10th 1944 mission your father would have been stationed at the Lucera Airflield used by the 301st BG Feb 1944-1945

[kolbpilot]

A Hell of a mission.

[micropage7]

I ever heard a story that some crew wears their best clothes just to prepare if they get hit, so they have nice wear when they die..

[datzfast]

@micropage7 didnt your mother tell you to wear clean underware just in case you were ran over and killed by a car.

[DAulme]

Imagine history written by youtoubers.

[elizabethn2]

Y'know, my uncle was a tail gunner over Ploesti and is still around to tell the story. He doesn't give numbers like 300 either, but he talks about the strategic importance of hitting Nazi oil supplies, and he got 2 Purple Hearts, a DFC and Silver Star for his heroism there.

[gaelgeseomra]

The polution must of been awful

[clintonearlwalker]

The idea that this was a disaster for American forces is garbage. 45 airplanes, 310 men lost? To hit the German petroleum supply would have been worth 3 times as many casulties, it was war. More people were murdered in Auschwitz than were lost by either the Americans, or the British, during the entire war.

[Godsinwar]

FAN-TÁS-TI-CO!!! Eu sabia da história somente pelos livros! Voar a 30m de altitude!!! Tocando as copas das árvores!!! Tem o relato de um tripulante que quis descer ali porque viu no caminho um lago cheio de nudistas!!! Que coragem!!!!

[jetfighter200]

Von den 178 B-24 wurden 48 abgeschossen und über 50 Maschinen schwer beschädigt ( schrottreif geschossen ). Den Amerikanern kam auch Flakfeuer wie aus Badeduschen entgegen.

[Olengher]

It wasnt disastrous but it was close, this is bullshit.Allies came back a yaer later with figher escort and finished the job.When frontline was miles away, pointless destruction.Allies choose communism over nazism.That english shit, i can't spell his name is guilty.England had nothing to say in this war so they allied with whoever to save their skin and rest followed the trend.Nazism was bad, but at least we had the kingdom.Classical and guaranteed to work unlike stalinist dictators.

[xeasternxz]

@Olengher man, its exhausting seeing your poor lil pea brain trying to make sense of history. Stop it, you haven't the capacity and only make yourself look foolish. (though being a pea brain you wouldn't know that) Instead of rewriting history and producing lying garbage, do something useful, like decorate the inside of your empty skull with something educational, Disney characters (you'll like that) perhaps, or morally uplifting mottoes, such as , " I must not be a dummkopf!"

[Olengher]

@Olengher what r u you stupid?Where did i lie?This raid was not a success.WW2 turned out bad overall.Stalin died of old age.That shit you have between the ears process this information?I rewrite history?Maybe Iran, north korea, vietnam, are not linked to communists.

[phillippatterson1]

Didn't lose 300 planes or 3000 men. Those numbers are totally false. There wasn't 300 planes on the mission. Total fatalities according to 9th Airforce was 310 fatalities. Many damaged planes any many taken prisoner. A hot day. Autust 1, 1943

[Bomberguy]

Obviously a C&P error, thanks for pointing it out

[Noren1260]

Yeah, ask the wonderful Romanians about the wonderful Iron Guard.

[hmanwarren1]

I wish the US would have just left you in the hands of the Nazis you sniveling ingrates.

[Setirock]

soon USA will collapse thats i can say for the moment, because the people of america are blind dont realise what the goverment doing they are to "fat"...

[1926Donal]

@Setirock Sadly for you the US of A isn't about to collapse. This is the same ill though out European argument of the 1980s. Just remember how the USA resurged back then. Already the fall in the US dollar has helped restore USA industries competitiveness. Another major point is that unlike Europe, the USA's population continues to grow along with the absolute size of its economy.

[pondword23]

My dad survived Aug.1, 1943, spent over a year as a POW and never said a bad word about the Romanians---the Romanians saved his life. He was following orders, survived on his training and remembered the worst day of his life with his heart.

[TheMisterkiller89]

sa va ia dracu de americani care distrudeti lumea si in plus ati luat la Ploiesti cea mai mare pl din istoria aviatie voastre. Sa ne dati pace adunatura de gunoaie si pungasi ce sunteti voi. Fuk Sua Good Bless Roumania

[Setirock]

its PLOIESTI u fucking americans all a bunch fucking retards who doesnt know about nothing..... in romanian i can say to all american sa va iau mortii la pula, fmm de lesinati copti sa ardeti 1 cate 1

[1926Donal]

Hey buddy, start a spelling bee, There are plenty of guys paid a lot of bucks in the State Department to keep track of small countries like yours and keep the spelling straight. Man those guys at State must earn their dough if they have too put up with this sort of ignorant vitriol.

[wannabehendrix]

@Setirock and in english I can say to you. Eat shit and die you backwater Romanian retard. You were a load your mom should have swallowed!!!

[SCE2AUX]

I went to Romania in 1990. (snicker) Still have holes in your flags?

[canusa1000]

I am researching Americans who served with the RAF and RCAF during WWII.

Several ex RAF/RCAF Americans participated in the Ploesti mission.

Please contact me if you are the releative of an ex RAF/RCAF American.

[IARist]

No mather what anyone says, the facts are facts: 54 or 57 liberators lost out of 177, the production of oil was even higher after the first raid than before. And about the other raids, well we fought but the americans had a bigger quantity, and don't talk about any airman honour, many americans shot german and romanian pilots taht were in their parachutes. As Axis Sally said in 1943, Good show but you lost too many!

[boogeyman450]

Good to see that the east urp sub-humans (hitlers words) are still bitter about LOSING THE WAR! ha ha ha ha ha ha

[ILoveMyTail]

what an ignorant cunt you are. last time i checked all humans come from the same god damn ape. i wouldn't be so high and mighty if i were you, considering australians descend from convict settlers.

[1926Donal]

@ILoveMyTail Just remember those convicts carved a nation out of the wilderness that is somewhat more advanced than most.

[fedzog]

what a joke. typical amelikanese dis-information.

operation tidal wave was a miserable fiasco. losing 600+ air crews, and 1/3 of air planes, yet the damage on the refinery was minimal.

[WreathedinHoochSmoke]

You are completely misinformed. Read the history.

[slapaugh]

Such anger from the Romanian. Learn your history before you argue. It will make you sound more intelligent.

[worldWarIIBuster]

I'd like to speak German, but i m romanian , and Romania was an ally of Germany. Because of the Fuhrer , the war was lost. After the fall of the communist regime in Russia, you, the American people, you shake with fear in front of russian tzar . and your religion will be lost in front of him .

[slapaugh]

Why is there so much anamosity here? If it wasn't for the U.S. you'd all be speaking German !

[terryjohn]

pity!!

[razastegaru]

allow me to say just this: you're a fucking arrogant prick! We would have spoken german? Go fuck yourself! the american bombers killed more civilians than military targets so for what should we romanians be thanking you for? By the way, this propaganda video is so lame. Mixed units of romanian-german fighter planes and anti-aircraft shot down almoast 60 bombers. And Romania was not under german occupation we are allies.

[andymesquita]

hey romanian dude, you shouldn't even be remembering everybody you were allies with the nazis - you were an embarrassment for the Germans! the crappiest troops of the war! you cost them Stalingrad ahah anyway, your death were well deserved for supporting fuckin Hitler!

[sebipatru]

hey you fucking alied were was USA the great nation were Germany and USSR rape our teritory. How you can speak about us, when you allowed Germany to build his army to fight against USSR and than when Hitler atacked in west you just so became alies wih the communist you enemies before and after the war. You created ONU to prevent this and after tahat did nothing. We go in war to recover our teritories and not because we were nazis or somethin else.

[sebipatru]

and tidal wave was and desasterfor the americans. Only the old romanian IAR 80 destroyed 10 bombers in taha day. Fuck the 2 bitches of ww2 USA an UK

[1926Donal]

Sorry Romania is a little too east for the west to defend. Sorry that the UK and USA were not ready to defend the whole world. Sorry the west did not go to war against the USSR for Romania. Sorry buddy you seem quite unrealistic.

[sebipatru]

indeed this was the only foult of romania it was too east

[Olengher]

Soviets entered my country in american trucks.How did the allies choose the communists over nazis?Tossed the coin?Soviets and stalin were nice people.They never rock the boat.Vietnam, north korea, iran.Soviet union could have ended in 41

[1926Donal]

@Olengher No one was be happy about the fate of eastern Europe under the Soviets. What would you suggest the west should have done? Start WW III to free eastern Europe? It might not seem fair but after the losses to defeat the Nazis attacking the Soviets was not politically feasible? Yes western airpower would have eventually prevailed but the destruction of life and (eastern European) property would have made the fall of Germany look like a warm up round.

[yonpolite]

take it easy Jack Geller....

Lay a little bit off of Friends....

[WreathedinHoochSmoke]

Correct. And much. much worse.

[N15gooner]

If you side with the devil, god shoves large pineapple up arse, this is fact of life.

Simples.

[tudorbogdan]

Nazi controled romania?=)),fucking americans.We'll never forget that raid. Once upon a time America was the powerfull country in the world.That message will be propaganda after the WW3.I don't know if will be russian propaganda,but will be propanga anyway . They destroyed that city , powerfull americans airmen destroyed romanian oilfields , with just 3000 airman lost . America , enjoy this moments , when you lead the world . In a few years,you will be down your knees , and your head will be cut.

[legionario501]

my english is very bad but how hours was the time of this missions?

[cavter]

the american raids destroyed much of the civilian buildings, thus the old arhitecture of my homecity was lost!!!

[costyca1985]

omg how much they lie....america sucks.

[nurromcitigan]

lies lies lies! USA is capable to destroy the own people, see 11th september. This cocksuckers want to be king of the world, but isn't that!

ROMANIA RULLZ!

[1976198220]

americani imputiti si mincinosi! niste lasi....

[SmiertSpionem]

Food for IAR 80's, the Liberator was a very vulnerable bomber.

[MasacruRo]

I just found this and i was shocked : Ploiesti (The city i live in now , romania) i had no idea this place was attacked so hard

[zeppelin5000]

My Grandfather was in the 376th BG 515 AF. He wasn't fly yet at the time of the Ploesti raid, but he started flying once the group moved to Italy. He told me he remembered the planes coming back to N. Africa with tree branches stuck in their cowlings. That's how low they were flying. At this time he worked on sheet metal and stuff like that. Once he started flying, he was a waist gunner as well as the photographer for the bombs hitting their targets. He flew 50 missions.

[ColdBloodedTimeKillr]

my grandfather was bombed by your grandfather's colleagues :))

[ThePacificSun]

Thanks, sir. Wow. Low level bombing. It can't be said enough: War is hell. My channel doesn't indicate it but this kind of thing fascinates me. Bless all the crews lost in action, no matter how or where they were lost.

[ThePacificSun]

Judging from the map the bombers took off from N.Africa? Was that the base at Soluch in Libya? If so-did the 376th Bomber Group fly on the Ploesti raids? I'm curious because this information fascinates me. Looking over mission chronologies, the statistics and details about the date, time, weather, consist etc etc , to me tell more of what I already imagine it was like. Why the 376th? I read about this company (B-24 Liberators) while researching the Army's "Operaton Climax".

[btheman85]

ThePacificSun,

The 376th did indeed participate in the raid over Ploesti. The 15th AF, 376th HBG was part of the old HALPRO Division and was a large presense in Northern Africa.

[metalliq]

You guys do realize that Ploesti was one of the most disastrous campaigns for the US air forces during WWII....

The losses that the americans took at Ploesti are monumental and people still write about this campaign as being one of the biggest failures of WWII...

This was just a propaganda film and you guys are completely missing the point. The actual raid was the biggest disaster with over 80% of the American bombers being lost.

[MRvincent77]

Amen to That!!

[SmiertSpionem]

True that.

[EricBBrandon1]

@metalliq You are completely correct! My father was tasked with recovering the remains of the downed airmen, he wouldn't talk much about it. For a time, he was attached with the OSS, trying to catch the individuals/units that murdered the surviving airmen so they could face charges for war crimes. My father was in command, establishing the cemetery for the downed airmen,

[cavter]

i live in ploiesti and my grandfather, who fought in ww2 told me that german soldiers had been in great numbers around here. that's why many ctitizens of the city still have german names. ;)

[albionsseed]

The Germans were surprised that the Americans dealt so hard a blow to what was "their property".

[driver1928]

The video says "over 170 aircraft." Where did you get "300 aircraft"?

[Bomberguy]

There was more than one raid... obviously!

[lapusteanu]

shit ...itstarted only a few fires...but the Allies Air forces were a little messed up...but the pilots caught by Romanians received shelter...the Allies did shit on this mission and on the HALPRO mission...our tru problem were the russians approaching Romania...90 procent of Romanians would have given their lives just to keep Romania out of Russian hands...but we did the studpidity of 23 August 44 and trusted the Allies like we do today...and we became traitors and they sold us up...

[corrion1]

its called undergroung facilites!

[Workinbus]

By Feb 1945 raids on Ploesti, Merseburg , Ludwigshafen and other nazi refineries had cut nazi oil production by 91%..Nazi Armaments minister Albert Speer in his autobiography, said that the the German's inability to stop the Anglo American Bomber offensive was the single biggest factor in Germany losing the War....

[ventzel2006]

ploiestiul a fost cel mai aparat oras din europa in timpul celui de al doilea razboi mondial asa ca ploiestiul nr 1

[ser4all]

berlin had the best aa defence, then the rhine factories and then ploiesti

[peter130476]

gorillaman78, your father was surely a junkie, not a pilot, because he made you, an ignorant moron.

[gorillaman78]

My father went on the Ploesti raid and they hit their target. He said the Romanian fighter pilots sucked and they blew them outof the air. They did take heavy losses due to German flak and 88's.

[margaritsorin]

i am from ploiesti mr.preistoric man and the american army whas not doing nothing then because we whas make a fake city and you american whas destroy it but this is a secret of state

[margaritsorin]

and this movie is a shit because americans army whas never atack an day light they whas atack night

[slapaugh]

The American raids were all daylight raids my friend. Read the book, "Log of the Liberator" which is why many aircraft were lost.

[BlinkySauce]

the americans bombed at day and the british bombed at night

[timo1595]

RAF and 8th / 9th Air Force never really couldn't damage german warindustry production. Even oilproduce stayed in high level until russian red army took whole Ploesti oilfields.

[vicioba]

I've seen years ago on History Channel some footage about Ploesti featurins King Michael,G-ral Antonescu and soldiers wearing Romanian uniforms...they were still claiming that Americans were fightind and defeating Germans.Ignorance? I doubt it!

[alexkool22]

Au luat-o in buci rau de tot americanii :))

[mariusandra]

Propaganda...si-au luat-o in freza rau , dupa ce au "spart" linistea radio au bombardat din greseala Bucurestiul, unde au fost facuti pilaf,ce a mai ramas din restul bombardierelor a incercat fara succes sa bombardeze Ploiestiul.

[hamilcar87]

si tot nu inteleg dc ii consideram prieteni

[falx43]

eu nu ii consider prieteni,da-i darcu

[jordy22222]

The "Tidal Wave" bombing operation was a fiasco for US Air Forces. They lost many Liberators, hit by the Romanian-German AA and aviation. My grandfather a veteran of those days told me they used to fire their Oerlokon AA cannons till they started to glow red-white. Hopefully Romania was a Heaven for the prisoners although Allied bombers killed a lot of civilians. WW2 was after all an dirty war and Romania caught in the middle paid an unfair price for the next 55 years.