Author Archives: David Klaus

I’m deep into writing the script for my documentary right now and I need your help. With the massive original research I’ve done at the US National Archives, USAF Historical Research Agency, Air Force Museum, Romanian archives, German Bundesarchiv, British National Archives and Imperial War Museum, interviews with participants, etc., etc., etc., I have FAR more information than could ever fit into a film documentary.

This documentary is for you–since I’ve done the research, obviously I already know the story. The point is that to be useful, this doc must first answer your “burning questions” about the mission. This is literally the most important thing. ...  (Read more)

Deep research for my TIDAL WAVE/Ploesti documentary continues, but is hopefully, finally, drawing to a close. When I committed to myself at the start of this project to "leave no stone unturned," I had no idea how long or how expensive that task would be. It’s been a ton of fun, but ye gods, I’ll be glad to have this wrapped up!

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Long-delayed update on my documentary’s progress:

First, it’s not done yet (damn). However, the research portion is very nearly at end and I’m actively working on the script, visuals, graphics, etc. ...  (Read more)

Lists of TIDAL WAVE B-24Ds have been published in the past.  However, once I started evaluating them it was clear serious inaccuracies were present.  The extensive B-24D list at the link below is the result of assessing more than 450 official documents of various types along with a number of crewmember diaries, letters, and articles.

While not every single data element is confirmed in every detail (as described on the linked page), this is the most accurate list ever published.  To be clear, while I know a lot I certainly don’t know everything.  If you have confirmed information (NOT stuff from the many Ploesti books out there) that will help complete this list, please contact me by clicking one of the links on that page.  With your help, we’ll make this thing ROCK! ...  (Read more)

I found and had declassified a formerly TOP SECRET report that lays out, in detail, what the Luftwaffe Signal Intelligence Service (specifically W-Leit Südost, Referat C, and Chi-Stelle) knew in advance of the TIDAL WAVE mission, and what they knew and did on the day of the actual mission.

It turns out they knew quite a lot–and it didn’t require spies in Cairo (although they certainly existed) or a “stay behind” team hiding in a wadi outside Benghazi, as speculated in certain publications.  What the Luftwaffe command structure did with the information is yet another story. ...  (Read more)

A couple of guys have enquired within the last week about what’s going on with my TIDAL WAVE/Ploesti documentary since they hadn’t heard anything from me for a while.  The 70th anniversary of the mission was a couple of weeks ago and I had really wanted to have my documentary on the street by then.  Didn’t make it.

I’m putting in a MINIMUM of eight hours a day, seven days a week on the TIDAL WAVE project, regardless of what else I’m doing.  I try to take a full day off every three weeks, but don’t always get to do that, what with travel and all, and I get in about 10-12 hours on most days. ...  (Read more)

This bibliography is a work-in-progress, as I’ve obtained and read so many damn documents that it will take me forever to get this typed up, aside from the difficulty of finding all these references.

The list below is MUCH less than 1% (yes, one percent) of the books, papers, monographs, messages, reports, histories, etc., that I’m using to create this TIDAL WAVE (Ploesti) documentary.  ...  (Read more)

About a week ago I received a huge dump of contemporary (original) Romanian and German documents related to TIDAL WAVE. All these docs are in the Romanian or German language, and since I don’t speak either language, I’ve been working 15-16 hour days since the pile arrived to get them translated.

Not to overstate the situation, but this document dump is proving to sort of like the “Wikileaks” of the Axis side TIDAL WAVE. Very, very good stuff. ...  (Read more)