On Aug. 1, 1943 five groups of American B-24 Liberators lifted off from airrields around Benghazi, Libya. Their destination was the huge oil refining complex at Ploesti, Roumania. Code named "Tidal Wave," this raid was designed to take the Axis defenders by surprise and strike a decisive blow against Nazi Germanys oil supply. The young men on board those Liberators knew of Ploesti's importance to  Hitler's war machine; they also knew that many of them might not come back. Sadly, the mission was dogged by misfortune from the very beginning. Undaunted by a string of unfortunate events, the valiant men of Tidal Wave pressed on to their target and a trip through hell.

Numerous accounts exist of this most famous of some 25 raids on Ploesti. However, Ray Ward's Those Brave Crews has broken new ground in the historical literature on strategic bombing in WW II. Ward's book is indeed a wonderful literary achievement, an epic poem that recreates the hope, the terror, and the valor that characterized that fateful mission. The most difficult task facing a writer is that of conveying to the reader a realistic sense of the nature of his topic. Ward's poem, unprecedented in the literature of this era, has fulfilled that task magnificently. His words weave a tapestry of conflicting feelings and emotions: laughter, pride, fear, sorrow. But above all, Ward's tale is one of rare bravery, dedication, and sacrifice. His chosen medium, epic poetry, sets his account above all others through an ability to transport the reader back to those death-filled skies above the Nazi puppet of Roumania.

Those Brave Crews, moreover, is indeed a valuable reference on strategic air power. Ward documents the arrival in Egypt of the first handful of B-24s under Col. Harry Halverson in the summer of 1942. Originally destined for China, the "Halpro Detachment" was employed instead against Ploesti, mounting a small -raid in June 1942.  The author then takes the reader on a gripping ride through the first day of August 1943.  Yet Ward's epic encompasses far more than Ploesti. Woven into his epic, itself entitled Tidal Wave, are references to great moments in the history of air power such as Billy Mitchell's bombing tests and the introduction of warplanes during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12.  Ward is able to integrate these strands of history from outside his main subject without disturbing the flow of his epic by providing marginal notes which explain to the reader the importance of the people or event to which his verse refers. Thus, the reader who is not familiar with the subject of air power or the raids on Ploesti is able to appreciate both the beauty of the authors poetry while maintaining factual and historical reference points..

Despite the somber nature of the subject, Tidal Wave also provides some moments of humor, albeit, perhaps, dark humor. At one point, Ward describes the misery many crew members experienced due to dysentery contracted in North Africa. Despite their affliction, these men reported for duty. "They could not, would not selves excuse/They knew what waited up ahead/And found their strength in duty's call./ Tarfu crewman summed it, neaV'Put your faith in potted seat/And pray ten men at once don't meet." Ward then explains in a marginal note that the "cruelest blow" to the crew of Tarfu was the "destruction of their portable commode by flak while over the target."

Apart from such asides, the author creates a sense of excitement and of impending crisis as he describes the gathering of aircraft and their approach to Ploesti. The German's were not to be caught with their pants down on this raid. Allied intelligence, according to Edward Jablonski in his mufti-volume history Air War, believed that Ploesti would be defended largely by war-weary Roumanian forces. In fact, Ploesti was ringed by 40 batteries of heavy "88s" plus hundreds of lighter weapons manned by veteran Luftwaffe crews. The men of Tidal Wave would also face, in the immediate area of the target, three groups of ME-109s and one of ME-110s.

Through hauntingly beautiful verse, Ward prepares the reader for imminent disaster.  Wingo Wango, inexplicably crashed into the waters of the Mediterranean. "The scene shook viewers to the core/Gone was the crew, all gone, all dead!/Gone Mission ship for the course ahead!" Brewery Wagon, with young Lt. William Wright aboard as navigator, took the lead. Breaking up in the clouds over the Balkans, the five groups of Tidal Wave separated into two formations. Due to the enforcement of radio silence, the groups would not see one another again until the confusion of the aerial melee over Ploesti. The rest of the story is well known: doubting the young Wright's abilities and mistaking one small town for the one which marked the turning point, the command ship, with Brig. General Uzal Ent onboard, turned one valley too soon and headed for the Roumanian capital of Bucharest instead of Ploesti. Upon nearing the city, Ent and his three groups (two, the 44 th and 96th flew as briefed) corrected their course and felt the teeth of the now-alert German defenders.

Ward describes the scene over Ploesti with terrifying reality. When it was all over, he tells us, Tidal Wave lost 59 of its 165 aircraft (not counting aborts) and 681 men of 1,726 were killed, wounded, missing, or captured. Five Medals of Honor were awarded for the mission, three posthumously. This was the highest number of such distinctions for any single air action of the war. Oddly enough, Tidal Wave suffered 40 percent casualties while reducing the capacity of the complex at Ploesti by an identical amount.

Those Brave Crews is lavishly illustrated with dozens of photographs and  diagrams. The author provides both introductory and concluding passages that present the reader with a succinct account of the battle. The book also contains a bibliography, something one would not generally expect with an epic poem.

Ray Ward flew in B-24s and R-4s. His epic poem reflects his own passion for the subject. Those Brave Crews assures that future generations of Americans will hear of those men who never flinched, never failed, never looked back. Ward's work will ' continue to inspire those charged with this Nation's defense long after his subjects and their contemporaries are gone. "And none may die who therein fly, who linger, timeless, in the sky/Nor need is there for shroud or grave/For any man with Tidal Wave."

(Reviewed by Capt Mark J. Conversino, USAF, instructor of Military History. U.S. Air Force Academy. )