Since posting the long update below, I’ve had several crucial research breakthroughs.
First, I now have Reichsminister Albert Speer’s 19 Aug 43 report on the German fuel situation, which also discussed the TIDAL WAVE attack in some detail, particularly regarding short, medium, and long term effects of the attack. To the best of my knowledge, this report has not been seen by previous researchers.
Next, from the Nazi Foreign Ministry archive in Berlin I now have three crucial reports on the 2-3 Nov 43 Hitler-Antonescu conference at the Führerhauptquartier (Hitler’s headquarters), which reveal in detail two exceptionally important matters: Hitler’s assessment of the current war situation (summer 1943) and his projections of how the rest of the war will unfold, and discussions about the TIDAL WAVE attack. These discussions are particularly interesting in that they reveal what Hitler was being told about the attack, and the fact I’ve identified two explicit lies Antonescu told Hitler. I can document the fact of these lies because I already have the original Romanian documentation that covers the two issues in great detail. What Antonescu told Hitler wasn’t true, and Antonescu knew he was lying.
Third, I found a series of German graphs that show the sources for various fuel types (AVGAS, vehicle gas, diesel, etc.) and what they were used for (civilian, military, etc.) from 1939 to the first part of 1945. I’ve seen glimpses of this information in various other reports and analyses, but this is the first time I’ve found the “big picture,” which is a huge part of the previously untold TIDAL WAVE story.
Finally, and while this hardly rises to the level of importance of the two finds above it was far more difficult to find (!), I now have complete information about the mirror attachment devices loaned by the RAF and fitted to the K-24 fixed strike cameras mounted in many of the TW B-24s. RAF Coastal Command developed this mirror attachment to allow a vertically-mounted strike camera to take pictures just behind and below the bomber to allow more accurate assessment of low level bombing or depth charging attacks on U-Boats.
Previously Coastal Command had to rely on crew eyewitness reports, which were often deemed unreliable. As you may know, later in the war the RAF also used handheld cameras to document U-Boat attacks, but they obviously did not require any special fittings. While I have not researched any potential connection, on TW both fixed K-24 cameras with the mirror attachment and handheld K-20 cameras were widely used, which may have affected the RAF’s later policies of photographing U-Boat attacks with handhelds. Certainly speculation, but as far as I know the RAF did not use handhelds prior to TW.
…and much, much more that I’m not going to reveal at this point!
David Klaus,
The amount of “Dis/Mis- Information” along with “Lies” that becomes”Historical Truths” is phenomenal. The Only Force with the Fortitude needed to unwind these webs of woven “Wants and Hope fors” could only be surmounted by You, David Klaus!
What I have read and learned back in the 1960’s had continued to evolve with interjections of new history revealed. But those of us along with the library volumes of history “Owe a Great Debt” to You and Your Diligence to reveal not only the mission actions truth but the conditions and dispositions of the aircraft and crews.
I will keep watching you as you reveal more ever fascinating true historic facts of TW and our Brave Veterans. Thank you, David Huffman
Hey David
Many thanks for your very kind comments. Anybody can do what I’m doing if they’re willing to devote years and a mountain of cash to study a narrow subject(!)
One thing I think of often is how much more my research has revealed that was both unknown and unknowable to the TIDAL WAVE planners and airmen–AND the intelligence and economic experts of the time.
I have the massive advantage of the availability of Romanian and German documents that weren’t available even to Dugan and Stewart when they wrote their seminal Ploesti The Great Air-Ground Battle of 1 August 1943 in the late ’50s, published in 1961. Their work was at least as Herculean as mine; I just have more (and different) information available. I’m extremely pleased their book is still in print 60 years after it was first published–the mark of a truly timeless labor of love. I stand on the shoulders of these two giants.
Dave