Author chronicles the most decorated air mission in US history

It is the most decorated air mission in U.S. history and yet many Americans today know nothing about it.

Best-selling author Adam Makos has corrected that oversight with his riveting new book about Operation Tidal Wave. Those involved received five Medals of Honor, 56 Distinguished Service Crosses and more than 1,700 Distinguished Flying Crosses — one for each man who flew on the mission.

Mississippians may best know Makos for his book, “Devotion,” which told the Korean War story of the friendship between Navy Lt. Tom Hudner, who passed up Harvard University to fly for his country, and Ensign Jesse Brown, a Hattiesburg native who became the Navy’s first Black carrier pilot. The book was adapted into a 2022 film for Columbia Pictures.

The author’s latest book, “Tidal Wave: The Pilots, the Princess, and the Enemy Ace,” tells the story of one of the most dangerous air missions during World War II — sending B-24 Liberator bombers to blow up Romanian refineries that fueled Adolf Hitler’s armies.

But the rest of the plan sounded suicidal: have the B-24s fly as low as 50 to 100 feet to bomb the Ploesti oil complex.

The lumbering B-24s usually carried out attacks from 20,000 feet to avoid anti-aircraft fire, but in this case, Allied leaders wanted the pilots to blow up the refineries from an extremely low altitude in hopes of crippling Hitler’s war machine.

The leaders thought they would surprise the soldiers in Nazi-controlled Romania, but when the B-24s flew in, the soldiers were far from surprised and began firing immediately.

The book includes a host of memorable characters from these courageous aviators to Romania’s top fighter ace to a real-life princess living in the war-torn land, and the improbable story leads to an improbable ending as well.

Nearly a decade ago, Makos and his team began looking to see if any of the more than 1,700 men involved in the operation were still alive. The only survivor they could find was Ernie Poulson, the copilot on the bomber that crash-landed on the princess’ estate. 

“A copilot isn’t just any crew member,” Makos said in an interview. “He literally had his hands on the controls of the bomber and a hand in the fate of all aboard.

“But would he talk to us? And did his memory still hold the story?

“When we reached out to Ernie Poulson, he was 97 years old but still sharp and spry. He’d risen to the rank of colonel in the Air Force and afterward became a professor at the University of Utah.”

When Makos asked Poulson if he would talk to them, the World War II hero replied, “Come on out. My door is open.”

At that moment, Makos said, “We knew we had a book there. And not only that, but Ernie had written his own memoir of the events that was never published.”

Finding a 97-year-old eyewitness to one of the greatest events in military history “was like winning the lottery,” Makos said. “And that was nine years ago.”

There’s only one reason “you spend this long on a story,” he said. “It’s just that good.”

This review was published in partnership with the Clarion Ledger.

Jerry Mitchell grew up surrounded by aviation. His father was a Top Gun pilot in the Navy during the early days of the Vietnam War. Mitchell is the author of “Race Against Time” and now serves as senior investigative reporter for Mississippi Today.