Assigned to 345BS, 98BG, 9AF USAAF. Flew the 1-Aug-43 Ploesti mission in B-24 42-40663 'Maternity Ward'. Survived the ditching and 15 x days in a dingy with pilot John V Ward. Washed up on Italian held isaland Prisoner of War (POW). MACR 224

Awards: DFC, AM (OLC), PH, POW, WWII Victory, EAME.

"On August 1, 1943 my 23 year old father, Lt. Andrew L (Andy) Anderson, pilot of a B-24 Liberator bomber named "Maternity Ward" and along with 1,728 other crewmen in 178 bombers, took off from an airfield in Benghazi, Libya on a mission called Operation Tidal Wave, to destroy the Nazi's massive oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania.

Losses were heavy: 54 planes were shot down, my father's included, and 514 airmen, most of them between 18-26 years old, gave their lives that day in what the American Air College described as "One of the bloodiest and most heroic battles of WWII." Every one of the 1,728 crewmen received the Distinguished Flying Cross, and more Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded that day (five) than in any other battle...including D-Day.

I have vivid memories of my father describing the battle in conversations after dinner...one of three young sons enraptured by what happened on the mission...their 24's flying so low they clipped the tops of the corn fields, and manoeuvring the huge planes between the smokestacks of the refinery.

While listening to my father describe the battle from a first-person perspective certainly did trigger images in my mind of what happened, a couple of years ago I was introduced to a screenwriter who wrote a screenplay and a 2 minute movie "pitch" about Operation Tidal Wave, from the perspective of two other pilots. The clip completely blew me away because it was 100% true to everything my father described to us as children. And to this day I simply cannot fathom the bravery that these kids showed. The screenplay's title is "Day of Valor" and no matter how many times I watch it, it always gives me the chills knowing my father was in one of those planes:

https://youtu.be/GBXNOcVCRZE"