To Hell and Back by Anthony Saunders - Aviation Art

"TO HELL AND BACK - OPERATION TIDAL WAVE" By Anthony Saunder   Flying at low-level over the Astra Romana oil refinery, Lt James Merrick of the 98th Bomb Group powers his B-24 ‘Lil De-icer’ through the pall of burning debris as time-delayed bombs, dropped in error by a previous Group, explode beneath them. With any hope of surprise now lost, and taking heavy losses in the process, the crews of the 98th bravely hold their bombers on course. The flak was murderous, some of the worst encountered during the whole of World War II but, as the B-24s ran the deadly gauntlet, every crew held their course. Barely able to see through the pillars of flame and towering columns of dense black smoke, with airframes shaking as explosions lit up the sky, each bomb run became a roller-coaster ride through hell.  Allied planners knew that just over a third of all Germany’s oil came from a single source – the oil fields at Ploesti, far to the east of deepest Romania. If the oilfields and refineries at Plo