Air Campaign 012 - Ploesti 1943. The Great Raid on Hitler's Romanian Oil Refineries (2019) COMP.pdf

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C A M P A I G N
A I R
PLOESTI 1943
S T E V E N J . Z A LO G A
|
The great raid on Hitler’s Romanian oil
refineries
I L LU S T R AT E D B Y S T E V E N O O N
A I R C A M PA I G N
PLOESTI 1943
The great raid on Hitler’s Romanian oil refineries
STEVEN J. ZALOGA
ILLU STR ATED BY ST E V E NOON
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY
ATTACKER’S CAPABILITIES
DEFENDERS’ CAPABILITIES
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
THE CAMPAIGN
ANALYSIS
FURTHER READING
INDEX
4
8
9
14
30
38
77
92
95
4
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Ploesti was the center of
the Romanian petroleum
industry, responsible for
about 85 percent of
Romania’s refined oil
products.
Oil is the lifeblood of the modern war machine. Warplanes, tanks, and warships all require a
constant supply of fuel. Nazi Germany had no significant oil deposits and its only domestic
source was the expensive and complicated conversion of coal into synthetic fuels. This
could only provide about a third of its fuel requirements. Germany needed to import the
rest. Through the summer of 1941, Germany obtained oil on the foreign market, from
captured supplies, and from deliveries by its erstwhile ally, the Soviet Union. In view of
Hitler’s intentions to invade the Soviet Union, other sources were needed. The five main oil
producers in 1941 were the USA, USSR, Venezuela, Iran, and Romania. The first four sources
were unavailable, and Berlin turned its attention to Romania. Through diplomatic pressure,
Romania was gradually brought into the German orbit. In November 1940, Romania
formally allied itself to Berlin. About 85 percent of Romania’s oil was refined near the town of
Ploesti in the Prahova valley north of the capital city of Bucharest. Not surprisingly, the Allies
viewed Ploesti as a prime target for attack as a means to strangle Germany’s vital supply of fuel.
Operation
Tidal Wave,
the US Army Air Force raid on the Ploesti oil refineries on August 1,
1943, was one of the most controversial missions of World War II. The imposing distance
between Allied airfields on the Mediterranean and central Romania delayed a large-scale
mission until the summer of 1943. The results of
Tidal Wave
were disappointing and the
costs were high. Of the 178 B-24 heavy bombers taking part in the mission, 54 bombers
were lost, 55 seriously damaged, and aircrew casualties were over five hundred men. Ploesti’s
refineries were back in production within a month. Sobered by this experience, the US Army
Air Force did not return to attack the Ploesti oil complex until the spring of 1944.
Early attacks on Ploesti
Tidal Wave
was not the first attack on Ploesti. Allied interest in attacking Ploesti predated
American actions, with British and French plans dating back as early as the 1940 campaign.
These 1939–40 schemes mainly involved sabotage of the refineries or blockage of the Danube
5
river oil shipment routes. The Director of Naval Intelligence in London, in conjunction
with the naval attaché in Bucharest, organized a half-baked attempt in March–April 1940
to block key points on the Danube. One scheme involved sinking barges in the narrows at
the Iron Gates. In the event, none of these operations had the least success. In November
1940, Churchill demanded a new plan to attack Ploesti from the air. RAF chief of air staff,
Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall, presented a plan involving five bomber squadrons,
dropping 258 tons of bombs monthly over four months that would achieve 25–30 percent
destruction of the Ploesti refineries. The German conquest of Greece in April 1940 put an
end to these plans since no other airfields available to the RAF at the time were in range.
The first air strikes on the Ploesti oil fields were conducted by Soviet bomber units in the
summer of 1941 following the start of Germany’s Operation
Barbarossa
invasion. An initial
strike was conducted on June 26, 1941 by 17 aircraft. Only about half the aircraft reached
the target area and results were negligible. On July 9, the General Staff of the Red Army
ordered a coordinated attack on Romanian oil fields by the army air force (VVS-RKKA) and
the navy’s air forces. These missions were conducted primarily by the 2nd Air Force of the
Black Sea Fleet and the 21st and 81st Air Forces of the 4th Air Corps flying from Crimea
and other bases around the Black Sea.
The threat of Romanian and German fighters forced the use of night attacks. A total of
13 night raids were conducted from July 3 to July 22, mainly by naval DB-3F bombers.
Returning air crews reported that large fires had been initiated during the raids. In fact, most
of the attacks were wasted on dummy refineries created by Luftwaffe camouflage specialists
as detailed below.
The single most successful raid took place on July 13, 1941 when six Pe-2 bombers of
the 5th Squadron, 40th Bomber Regiment of the Black Sea Fleet under Capt Aleksandr P.
Tsurtsumiy staged a daytime raid on Ploesti from a forward base in Moldova. Soviet accounts
claim that the attack destroyed 202 fuel tanks, 46 oil tanks, and two warehouses along
with 220,000 tons of oil products, which was a substantial exaggeration. Four bombs hit
the Astra Română refinery and three at Lumina. However, 15 bombs landed on the Orion
refinery, striking a large tank park, an oil plant, and putting the Orion facility out of use
until November 1941. A Luftwaffe report indicated that a total of five large storage tanks
and six small tanks were set on fire, 17 railroad tank cars were destroyed and 29 damaged.
One of the more unusual
Soviet aircraft used in the
summer 1941 attacks on
Romania was the Zveno-
SPB (Sostavnoi
Pikiruyuschiy
Bombardirovschik –
Combination Dive
Bomber). This consisted of
a TB-3-4AM-34FRN
bomber carrying two
Polikarpov I-16 Tip 24
fighter-bombers as
parasites under the wings.
Six of these were
deployed with Shubikov’s
Circus, the 2nd Special
Squadron of the 32nd IAP
(Fighter Regiment) of the
62nd Aviation Brigade of
the Black Sea Fleet Air
Force based at Yevpatoria
in Crimea. The first of the
missions was on June 26,
1941 against the
Constanţa oil depot.

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