Romanian Princess Saved US B-24 Crew After 1943 Ploesti Raid
Ernie Poulson's bomber went down in Romania during Operation Tidal Wave, and a princess on her estate helped keep his crew alive
By AXY Defense Desk ·
Key points
- Ernie Poulson’s B-24, the Chattanooga Choo Choo, was lost on the Aug. 1, 1943 Ploesti raid, and its crew was captured by the Romanian home guard.
- Princess Catherine Caradja hid the airmen’s location from harsher treatment and had a severe camp commander replaced, according to Adam Makos’s book.
- The crew was later part of Operation Reunion, which rescued more than 1,000 captured Allied airmen.
- Makos says the Ploesti campaign took a year and more than 67 American missions to push Romania out of the war.
Ernie Poulson was a young co-pilot when his B-24 Liberator crashed in Romania in August 1943. For a time, he and his crew did not know whether they would survive the day. A feature published by Military Times, drawn from Adam Makos’s new book Tidal Wave: The Pilots, the Princess, and the Enemy Ace, describes how the crew of the bomber Chattanooga Choo Choo was taken prisoner after the Ploesti raid and then pulled from a dark pit by a Romanian noblewoman who refused to leave them to their fate. The account centres on Princess Catherine Caradja, a member of Romanian royalty whose intervention is the story’s most striking thread.
How a Low-Level Raid on Romania’s Oil Fields Went Wrong
On Aug. 1, 1943, Poulson co-piloted the Consolidated B-24 Liberator on a low-level bombing run against an oil refinery in Campina. The refinery was part of the Ploesti oil fields raid, a mission the American air forces codenamed Operation Tidal Wave. The aim was to hit the fuel supply that the German war machine depended on, and the planners expected a decisive blow.
The cost was severe. Poulson’s aircraft was one of 53 lost that day. Makos, speaking to Military Times, put the planners’ hopes in their own words: “That’s what the brass thought in 1943 when they sent those bombers into Romania at low level: wipe out Hitler’s refineries in one great raid,” Makos said. “They said it would shorten the war by six months.”
Makos’s point is that the single raid was not the end of the matter. In his telling, the August mission was the opening move in a longer campaign. “The truth was, Operation Tidal Wave was the opening salvo in a campaign that took an entire year to knock Romania out of the war and deny Hitler its oil,” he said. He added that it took more than 67 American missions, and 237 bombers lost, to batter Romania enough to cause regime change.
For readers outside military history, the scale matters. A bomber crew in 1943 did not have the protection or the navigation tools of later decades. Low-level runs exposed aircraft to anti-aircraft fire and fighters at close range, which is why the losses on the Ploesti missions were so heavy.
Hiding in a Cistern Until a Princess Opened the Trap Door
Poulson and his crew came down near a river bank and were taken captive by the Romanian home guard. The airmen were bruised and battered. They were then held in the complete darkness of an abandoned cistern in rural Romania, where they waited to learn what would happen to them.
In the pit, the Americans heard movement above them. Then a trap door opened and a head appeared. A woman’s voice spoke to them in heavily accented English. “Hello, boys. There are only friends here. Now come up and let us help you.”
Poulson and the others did not know it at the time, but the voice belonged to the person who would change the course of their war. The woman was Princess Catherine Caradja, and from that moment she was, in effect, responsible for their lives. Makos’s book treats that scene as a pivotal moment, and it shows how a single decision by one person could affect the fate of several young men far from home.
Why Romania Switched Sides and What It Meant for the Airmen
To understand why a princess would help enemy airmen, the wider politics of Romania matter. At the time, Romania was a reluctant ally of Germany. Its despotic fascist ruler had joined the Axis powers in order to fight the Soviet Union, which the country regarded as its archenemy.
Many Romanians, however, were uneasy about the Nazis and favoured the Allies. Princess Catherine was one of them. She believed her country was on the wrong side of the war, and she acted on that view when the Chattanooga Choo Choo came down on her estate.
That sympathy changed what happened next. Rather than being sent to a Luftwaffe prisoner-of-war camp, which would have been the far harsher option for the airmen, Poulson and his men were moved to a Romanian prison camp where the princess could keep an eye on them. Makos reports that she was able to have the camp commander replaced after he became too severe in his handling of the Americans. For the crew, that single change in custody meant the difference between a brutal captivity and one that was merely frightening.
The war also changed Romania itself. As the fighting went on, more and more Romanians were killed on the Eastern Front in Russia, and support for the Nazis weakened. In 1944 the monarch, Michael I, who was king in name only, led a coup against the dictator and switched the country’s side to join the Allies. The turn meant that former enemies were now working together, and it opened a new chapter for the Americans still held in the country.
The Rescue Chain That Ended in Operation Reunion
The story does not rest on the princess alone. Makos writes that Romania’s leading fighter ace, Prince Constantin “Buzz” Cantacuzino, who hated the Nazis, helped Allied airmen held prisoner in the country. Among them was Lt. Col. James Alexander Gunn, the highest-ranking U.S. officer shot down in the Ploesti Raid.
Cantacuzino flew Gunn to safety in Italy in a Messerschmitt Bf 109 painted with two large American flags on its sides. From there, Gunn helped plan Operation Reunion, the rescue of more than 1,000 captured Allied airmen, including Poulson and his crew. The men were flown out in Boeing B-17 bombers that had been converted into troop transports. Cantacuzino flew escort for those Flying Fortresses in a North American P-51 Mustang.
The chain of help, in other words, ran from a princess’s estate to a fighter ace’s cockpit to a rescue operation that carried over a thousand men out of the country. Each link depended on people taking personal risks in a country that was still formally aligned with Germany when the work began.
Reunions, Memoirs and the Story Makos Pieced Together
Makos’s book does not end when the guns fall silent. According to the account, Poulson and the princess met again years later in Europe. It was there that the American learned how much was at stake for his benefactor had she been caught.
The political turn in Romania soon closed off the princess’s options. After the Communists seized control in Romania, Catherine escaped to America. She lived in Texas with Richard Britt, one of the airmen from Poulson’s plane. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, she returned to her homeland.
Poulson’s later career is also part of the record. He headed the Atlas missile program for the U.S. Air Force and retired as a colonel in 1961. He then became a professor of business at the University of Utah. He died in 2020.
Makos said the account rests on several sources. “We were so lucky that many of the people involved wrote memoirs, so we were able to piece it together and triangulate all the incredible events for accuracy,” he said. He also said he interviewed Poulson in 2018. “I interviewed Ernie Poulson in 2018 to get his side of it. He played such a movie-like role in this story.” Makos described the book as drawing on unreleased family archives, diaries, letters and firsthand accounts.
Why the Story Matters Beyond One Crew
The Ploesti raid is often told as a story of mass losses and hard choices in the air. The account of the Chattanooga Choo Choo adds a human layer to that record. It shows that a rescue was possible inside an enemy country, and that the fate of captured airmen could turn on the decisions of individuals in positions of influence.
For families and historians, the value lies in the detail. Poulson’s crew had survived a crash, been captured, and been moved from a likely harsh camp to a safer one. Each of those steps is now documented in a book that draws on personal papers and interviews, rather than on a single memory.
The next test for this story is whether the book’s account of the princess and the rescue chain will be picked up in further histories of the Ploesti campaign. This could give the crew’s experience a place in the wider telling of the raid, which has often been dominated by the numbers of bombers lost.
Questions and answers
What was Operation Tidal Wave?
Operation Tidal Wave was the codename for the American low-level raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Romania on Aug. 1, 1943. The mission targeted oil refineries, and 53 aircraft were lost that day, according to the account.
Who was Princess Catherine Caradja?
Princess Catherine Caradja was a member of Romanian royalty who helped the captured crew of the Chattanooga Choo Choo. She opposed the Nazis and had a camp commander replaced after he treated the Americans too harshly.
What happened to Ernie Poulson after the war?
Poulson later headed the Atlas missile program for the U.S. Air Force and retired as a colonel in 1961. He then became a professor of business at the University of Utah and died in 2020.
What was Operation Reunion?
Operation Reunion was the rescue of more than 1,000 captured Allied airmen, including Poulson and his crew. The men were flown out in Boeing B-17 bombers converted into troop transports.
Topics: Ploesti raid, Operation Tidal Wave, B-24 Liberator, Princess Catherine Caradja, Ernie Poulson, Adam Makos, Operation Reunion, Romania in World War II
Sources: Military Times
https://axynewsglobal.com/article/romanian-princess-saved-us-b-24-crew-after-1943-ploesti-raid