A Raid to Destroy Hitler’s Oil
The Romanian oil field and refinery complexes surrounding Ploesti were a vital source of oil for the Axis in WWII. It provided them with roughly one third of their needs. The Germans defended Ploesti with one of the world’s densest and best integrated air defense networks. It included hundreds of 88mm flak guns, thousands of smaller ones, plus Messerschmitt Bf 109 and 110 fighter planes. On August 1st, 1943, which came to be known as “Black Sunday”, 177 American B-24 “Liberator” heavy bombers took off from Libyan airfields for Ploesti.
They maintained radio silence, flew at about 50 feet to avoid enemy radar, skimmed over the Mediterranean, then flew at treetop level when they reached land. However, the Germans were alerted and the raid came to grief because of a cascade of mishaps. A navigation error took some bombers directly above a German position. A lead navigator’s crash caused bomber groups to arrive over the target staggered instead of simultaneously. As seen below, that was just the start of a series of bad breaks that doomed the raid.
