Eighty years ago this week, the US 9th Air Force launches a brave, but futile and costly raid on Romania and the initiative on the Eastern Front swings to the Soviets

 

The US 9th Air Force launched Operation Tidal Wave from bases in Libya recently taken from the Italians. 177 B-24 Liberator bombers were despatched to attack the oil refineries around the oil fields at Ploesti in Romania, Germany's most important source of oil. It was to be at low level and involved a round trip of 2,000 miles. The Americans had launched a small raid on Ploesti over a year before and encountered minimal opposition. Expecting the same the attack was made in daylight, but it encountered stiff reistance fom both German and Romanian fighters. 53 bombers were destroyed and 55 severely damaged. Around 500 crew were lost, either killed, POW or interned in Turkey: the worst casualties suffered in a major operation. Oil production suffered only minimal interruption.

The Red Army launched a major offensive aimed at Kharkiv (Or Kharkov as it was then usually known). The Soviets outnumbered the Germans by a large margin and were able to advance with little interference. It was a conclusive demonstration that the initiative on the Eastern Front had swung decisively after the misguided attempt by Hitler to pinch out the Kursk salient which had depleted the Germans' already strained resources fatally.

The British courts proved more resistant to deluded exagerration of the Soviet alliance than public or politicians. CPGB cadre Dave Springhall was convicted of espionage on behalf of the enemy and sentenced to seven years penal servitude. His agent was part of a concealed Communist cell operating in the Air Ministry. He also serviced an agent in SOE. The episode helped foster the complacency in which far better placed Soviet agents such as Cairncross and Philby were able to survive untroubled.

The desperate shortage of labour in the British aircraft industry led the government to redirect women who had signed up for the female branches of the armed forces into manufacturing. The compulsory registration of women for war service was extended to those aged up to 50. The Minister of Labour warned that conscription into the mines would have to be introduced if volunteer numbers fell short.