Where are the famous Ploiesti oil refineries that were bombed in WW2, located?

In an effort to stop the Nazi war machine, an aerial attack on the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti Romania was undertaken. The mission called, Operation Tidal Wave, was flown by U.S. B-24 bombers flying out of Libya and southern Italy.

The massive bombing took place on 1 August 1943 by 175 bombers with 1,751 crewmen.

Ploiesti was a major oil supplier in Europe and accounted for 30% of the Nazi fuel needs. Operation Tidal Wave although massive in size, resulted in very little permanent damage, or stoppage of oil output from the refineries.

The mission was very costly to the U.S. which lost 53 aircraft and 660 crewmen. Operation Tidal Wave was given the nick name "Black Sunday" after it was over.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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11 Comments

Loryne Coffin

My Dad was shot down near Ploesti. He wasn't in the low level raid. He was a bombardier. He and many others were rescued and protected by a Romanian princess, Catherine Caradja. After the war she came to the US and visited "her boys", the airmen she saved.

Nicholas Miernicki

The attack was very complicated with various streams of bombers converging over the oil refineries. Mistakes were made and the bombers attacked as best they could. After the attack the US commanders sat down to determine what went wrong, but the German after-action reports praised the attackers for using new and surprising tactics. I guess this is an example of what they call the "fog of war".

lls

filmnut, That is awesome--so many people doing the difficult, frightening work, to keep the world "righted."

lls

Loryne Coffin, That is so totally cool! History on the fly!

filmnut

Gery War is Hell and Hell is Hell but Vietnam smelled like Hell.

filmnut

Dad, was still flying missions out of Ascension Island in the South Atlantic at that time. I know for a fact my Uncle Jack was a waist Gunner on B-24s at that time and flew that Mission. Dad hadn’t gotten much four engine time in yet. I need to check some dates, ut he was very close to doing shuttle missions into North Africa and then back to England.