With a 5,000-lb bomb load the aircraft could range up to 2,850 miles. It could carry up to 8,000 pounds of bombs, and it was equipped with nine or more 50 caliber machine guns for self-defense. It had a top speed of just over 300 mph and a cruising speed of 200 mph. A crew of up to 10 operated a B-24, which was over 66 feet long with a 110-foot wingspan. The Consolidated B-24D Liberator was the only American long-range heavy bomber that could reach Ploiești from the nearest Allied air bases in North Africa. Combined these were all the B-24 groups then available in the European and Middle East theatre of operation. It was a bold, low-level assault involving 178 B-24 Liberator heavy bombers.įive heavy bombardment groups took part in Operation Tidal Wave: two from Benghazi, North Africa (the 98th and 376th), and three sent from England to Libya (the 44th, 93rd and 389th). One such attack, Operation Tidal Wave, launched on Sunday, August 1, 1943, was perhaps the most spectacular American bombing mission of World War II or at least in its European theatre. Which made it an obvious target for aerial attack. The refineries near Ploesti, an industrial center in eastern Romania near Bucharest and the Black Sea, provided one-third of the oil supply of the Axis forces in World War II. Air Force, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) Three B-24 Liberator bombers, assigned to the 98th Bomb Group, fly a low-level bombing mission over the oil refineries around Ploesti, Romania, Aug.
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