Dragged Through The Mouth of Hell At Ploesti

Literally every book on TIDAL WAVE claims B-24D-30-CO 42-10127, a verified Ploesti participant, was named either “Thar She Blows” or Thar She Blows (Again).

The confusion comes initially from the 93rd Bomb Group’s 1 July 1943 letter listing the nicknames for all 93rd ships in the desert, which states 42-40127 was named “Thar She Blows.” Further confusion has arisen since it’s conclusively documented that Capt Chuck Merrill flew 42-40127 to Ploesti, and he’d previously flown a ship named “Thar She Blows.” Official letter and all that, right? ...  (Read more)

To the TW researcher community:

I found a (postwar) account from a TIDAL WAVE veteran who was badly burned in the crash of his ship just outside Ploesti.  He stated that just-captured TW prisoners of war (presumably the bombardiers, who would have been the only crewmen with the technical knowledge) were forced to disarm time-fused bombs in  Ploesti.  Since his German captors had refused him medical treatment at the time this incident purportedly occurred (he didn’t receive medical treatment until turned over to the Romanians about 72 hours after his capture). ...  (Read more)

To me, it’s important to have some idea of how recurring words in another language are pronounced. I do not speak Romanian, although with all the official document translating I’ve been doing for the last couple of years I finally recognize the meaning of a few words in the language.

However, if you don’t speak Romanian either, the way their words are pronounced is not necessarily obvious to English speakers. I asked an acquaintance who is a native Romanian speaker to pronounce some of the words you may encounter as you learn more about the TIDAL WAVE operation. ...  (Read more)

It’s been quite a while since my last update and some of you may have been thinking the documentary is on hold or abandoned. Absolutely not!

I’ve unearthed a massive amount of previously unseen official information related to the TIDAL WAVE attack in Romanian, German, and British archives, and I’ve found several never-before-seen photo archives that include amazing TIDAL WAVE imagery.  ...  (Read more)

The Problems With Diaries, Photos, And Memory

If you’ve been following this project for any time you’re already aware that I put little emphasis on postwar reminiscences. The entire premise of my research has been to use as much original documentation as possible. ...  (Read more)

I’ve been going through a bunch of 9th AF (IX Bomber Command) crewmen’s diaries and decided to list the entertainment movies they saw from January to the end of July 1943. I doubt this is a complete list and I think some of the titles are wrong or misspelled, but hope it interests you to see the entertainment air and ground crews saw.

The dates are direct from the individual diaries. The movies would have “made the rounds” of the various units and obviously been shown on different dates at different units. ...  (Read more)

Loyalty among senior officers involved in TIDAL WAVE turns out to be a major part of the story, based on what I’ve uncovered during my research. I urge you to read the article at the link below to get a similar story that you’ll be able to relate back to TIDAL WAVE when you see my documentary.

If you personally have served as a military officer in any service in any country you’ll know instantly what I’m talking about because this loyalty has always existed everywhere men fight and you’ll have observed it or even been involved . . . for good or not. At a certain point it’s simply not avoidable. If you’ve served in an enlisted capacity you’ll also have a clear sense of what this is and what it means, especially because the same kind of loyalty has always existed everywhere at the non-officer levels too.  ...  (Read more)

23 aircraft went down in the immediate Ploesti area out of the 54 total lost on TIDAL WAVE. Aside from the apparently obvious reason, why did so many go down in the target area? What exactly did the crews face in there? It turns out there were two major reasons, one a serious technical error in configuration of the planes for the mission and the other the heavy flak. ...  (Read more)