Tidal Wave: The pilot, the princess, and the enemy ace--the unlikely alliance that launched the great escape of WWII
Adam Makos
May 2026 · Penguin Random House Audio
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About this audiobook
After being shot down in Nazi-occupied Romania during WWII, a rookie American bomber crew must turn to unlikely allies: Romanian royalty. A thrilling true story from the New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Call, Spearhead, and Devotion
It’s July 1943, and every available American B-24 bomber has been gathered in the Libyan desert for a secret mission: Operation Tidal Wave, a raid against Ploesti, home to the Romanian oil refineries that supply Hitler’s war machine with the lifeblood of war. But smashing “Hitler’s gas station” will require the most daring mission of the war, a raid of heavy bombers attacking volatile refineries at treetop level.
That task falls to Lieutenant Ernie Paulson and the rookie bomber crews of the 389th Bomb Group. A twenty-two-year-old copilot, Ernie, a farm kid from humble origins in Utah, is now embarking on the first adventure of his life. But when Ernie and his crew are shot down during the adrenaline-fueled attack, they crash-land in the last place they ever imagined: on the estate of Romanian princess Catherine Caradja.
After rescuing them from the clutches of the Nazis that occupy Romania, Princess Catherine adopts the American POWs as “her boys” and vows to get them home. Along the way, she brings the young men into a circle of unlikely allies, including Romania's twenty-one-year-old monarch, who's searching for a way to extract his nation from the Axis powers, and her cousin, a dashing Romanian ace reluctantly flying for the wrong side.
As the war turns against Germany, the American prisoners and their Romanian captors come to an understanding—their survival depends on joining forces. When Romania’s young king stages a coup against the Nazis, Ernie and the POWs are drawn into their most perilous mission yet: a great escape that will require the aid of their unlikely Romanian allies, forging a bond of friendship that will shape the rest of their lives.
From a long-overlooked front of World War II, Adam Makos delivers a gripping true story destined to join the ranks of military history’s finest.
It’s July 1943, and every available American B-24 bomber has been gathered in the Libyan desert for a secret mission: Operation Tidal Wave, a raid against Ploesti, home to the Romanian oil refineries that supply Hitler’s war machine with the lifeblood of war. But smashing “Hitler’s gas station” will require the most daring mission of the war, a raid of heavy bombers attacking volatile refineries at treetop level.
That task falls to Lieutenant Ernie Paulson and the rookie bomber crews of the 389th Bomb Group. A twenty-two-year-old copilot, Ernie, a farm kid from humble origins in Utah, is now embarking on the first adventure of his life. But when Ernie and his crew are shot down during the adrenaline-fueled attack, they crash-land in the last place they ever imagined: on the estate of Romanian princess Catherine Caradja.
After rescuing them from the clutches of the Nazis that occupy Romania, Princess Catherine adopts the American POWs as “her boys” and vows to get them home. Along the way, she brings the young men into a circle of unlikely allies, including Romania's twenty-one-year-old monarch, who's searching for a way to extract his nation from the Axis powers, and her cousin, a dashing Romanian ace reluctantly flying for the wrong side.
As the war turns against Germany, the American prisoners and their Romanian captors come to an understanding—their survival depends on joining forces. When Romania’s young king stages a coup against the Nazis, Ernie and the POWs are drawn into their most perilous mission yet: a great escape that will require the aid of their unlikely Romanian allies, forging a bond of friendship that will shape the rest of their lives.
From a long-overlooked front of World War II, Adam Makos delivers a gripping true story destined to join the ranks of military history’s finest.
About the author
Hailed by the Associated Press as “a masterful storyteller,” Adam Makos is the New York Times bestselling author of A Higher Call, Spearhead, and Devotion—now a major motion picture starring Glen Powell. Inspired by his grandfathers’ service, Makos delivers unforgettable stories of America’s veterans, blending raw human drama with vivid front-line detail. The Los Angeles Times puts him “in the top ranks of military writers,” a title earned on research missions that have taken him from flying a World War II bomber to embedding on a Special Forces raid in Iraq—and even journeying into North Korea in search of a missing American aviator.
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