26. A Cascade of Mishaps That Doomed an Ambitious Raid
US Army Air Forces commanders drew plans in 1943 for Operation Tidal Wave, a more ambitious raid against Ploesti than the paltry affair of 1942. Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers of the Ninth Air Force were to be reinforced by bomber groups that were loaned to them by the Eighth Force in Britain. They would head north from Libya across the Mediterranean, then turn northeast towards Ploesti when they reached the Greek coast. It would be a 2000-mile round trip, flown without the protection of fighter escorts.
177 B-24 Liberators took off from Libyan airfields on August 1st, 1943 – a date that came to be known as “Black Sunday”. They maintained radio silence and skimmed over the Mediterranean Sea at heights of 50 feet or less to avoid German radar, then flew at treetop level when they reached land. However, the Germans were alerted and the raid came to grief because of a cascade of mishaps. They included a navigation error that took some bombers directly above a German position; and a lead navigator’s crash that caused the bombers to arrive over the target in staggered groups instead of simultaneously.
