Episode Details

The True Story of Two WWII Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and the Woman Who Bound Them TogetherInterviews Available February 2-7, and Upon Requesthttps://jancressdondi.com/ Beginning early on August 1, 1943, Operation Tidal Wave was a risky mission aimed at destroying high-octane fuel production vital to Nazi Germany.  It involved the first-ever zero-altitude air raid just 150 feet above the ground – but chances of success were ranged between 50% and suicide.  In missions to destroy fuel-rich Ploesti, Romania, 2,432 US bomber crewmen went missing, became POW’s or were killed in action.   Jan Cress Dondi shares the inside story surrounding this historic mission in the new book, THE NAVIGATOR’S LETTER: The True Story of Two WWII Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and the Woman Who Bound Them Together (Union Square & Co., February 10, 2026).  The connected war stories of her uncle, John B. White, and her father, Bob Cress, are captured in the letters they both wrote to the same woman, Polley, who became Jan’s mother.  Both John B. and Bob became navigators on B-24 Bombers, both flew multiple combat missions in Europe, and both were forced down over the hotly targeted oilfields of Ploesti, Romania. 

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