August 1

What happened on August 1 in aviation and space history.

• August 1, 1943

  Operation Tidal Wave: the low-level raid on Ploiești

  Milestone — On 1 August 1943, 178 USAAF B-24 Liberators took off from Benghazi, Libya, to strike the Ploiești oil refineries in Romania at low level; the complex supplied roughly a third of the Axis war machine's fuel. The mission, codenamed Tidal Wave, cost 53 aircraft and more than 300 airmen killed or missing, and refinery output recovered within weeks. Five crew members received the Medal of Honor.