Former 'Astra Romana' oil refinery Ploiești

This refinery was of great importance to Nazi Germany during World War II and the main target of a number of bombings, first on 1 August 1943. After the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus proved inaccessible, they were more dependent than ever on their Romanian ally and in particular the refineries in Ploiești for their oil.

The Allies knew this too, of course, and in the summer of 1943 they decided to bomb these refineries from bases in Libya. From Western Europe this did not succeed but the distance from Libya vv could be covered by B-24 bombers.

On 1 August 1943, 178 US Liberators took off for ‘Operation Tidal Wave’. However, the Allies had no idea how heavily defended the refineries were. There were some 75,000 German troops in the area, most of whom were in charge of air defence.

For a variety of reasons, the attack became chaos. Formations lost each other and fell apart, the aircraft were heavily shelled and dozens crashed. In the end, some 500 tonnes of bombs fell on the refinery but did relatively little damage. Production was only minimally curtailed. On the way back, the B-24s were again attacked by German and Romanian fighters and several aircraft made emergency landings in Turkey (7) Malta (7) Sicily (9) and on Cyprus (12).

Of the 178 aircraft, 54 were lost in the attack, 308 men were killed and 208 captured. The Allies continued to attack the refineries. With 19 attacks and at the cost of great losses of men and aircraft, they did manage to significantly reduce production.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Rick de Jong
• - 178 bommenwerpers vielen Hitlers olie aan in Roemenië | historianet.nl