The Ninth Strikes Oil

This was the big target. Nearly a third of the petroleum for the Axis war machine was drawn from Ploesti. To attack it properly the Ninth U.S. Air Force, in the Middle East, built up a powerful group of Liberator bombers, its pilots and bombardiers specially trained for low-level bombing. One day this week more than 175 of the bombers took off on the long (2,400 mi.) mission. Droning over Greece and Bulgaria, they crossed the Danube just before 3 in the afternoon and dropped low above the villages and farms of Rumania.

In this part of the Balkans the Germans had strong air defenses. The Liberators shot down at least 51 enemy fighters, lost 20 U.S. planes over the target and eleven more on the return. Over Ploesti's 19 sq. mi. of oil derricks, refineries, storage tanks and Tracking plants, the bombers dived dangerously low, within 500 ft. of the ground and often through flames from the fires. One Liberator was destroyed by a bomb blast. Behind them earth and air trembled, patterns of black smoke blossomed and merged into one massive pall.

Purpose of the raid was to knock out Germany's dwindling oil resources, speed Italy's collapse, crush what was left of Rumania's fighting spirit. Gloated Major General Lewis Brereton, commander of the Ninth: "It is reasonable to suppose that the gallant action . . . has materially affected the course of the war."

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