Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya and Southern Italy on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of the “oil campaign” to deny petroleum-based fuel to the Axis. The refineries are still functioning today in the same area in Ploiești, which is the area where I grew up. I draw scenes from the bombardments overlapping them to the present day landscape. Memories of war are long gone but the games of power and their influence on the regular people do not differ too much today.
