The Bombing of the Rumanian Oil Industry

One-third of Germany's fuel for her war machines had been coming from the oilfields and refineries of Rumania. Ploesti, centre of that supply, had been very heavily bombed by the Allies. HENRY BAERLEIN discusses in this article possible reasons for the delay in assaulting this vital target.

The Russians had once or twice bombed the oil refineries at Ploesti, the centre of the Rumanian oil industry and an important railway junction to the north of Bucharest. Five of the fourteen refineries were situated in a straight line along the Ploesti-Buzau railway, and were the kind of target of which bombers dream, nor were any of the others difficult to spot.

It had been argued that it was difficult to transport oil to the German Army, but then Hitler had sent his Army to the Rumanian oil, basing his operations in the Balkans on those supplies. It was said that oil production in Rumania was decreasing and, therefore, bombing was not worth while, the fact was that Germany was not anxious to produce more than she needed at that moment, as oil in storage tanks was more vulnerable to air attacks than oil below the surface. When it was said that Rumanian oil was of low grade, the answer was that any low-grade oil could be treated by chemical processes to produce high-grade petrol.

Ploesti raiders report to an intelligence officer, Lieut. Arthur Guiliani, on their return from the daylight raid on the Rumanian oilfields on August I, 1943. The biggest low-level mass raid to this date, more than 175 planes participated, it had as its targets refineries, storage plants and distilleries.

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At the outbreak of the war only 7 per cent of the oil production was contributed by Rumanian companies, whereas 93 per cent came from foreign companies. British, American and so forth. At a critical point in WW1 the British owned wells were dealt with quite effectively, and I was told by an Englishman who had long lived in Rumania and did not leave till the last moment that this time these wells had been mined, but that for some reason unknown to him nothing further was done. One remembers that French and German electricity companies were selling each other power across the frontiers even after the outbreak of war. And did not Mr. Will Lawther, the President of the Mineworkers Federation, protest at Swansea in June 1939 at the huge exports of scrap metal which we were allowing to be sent to Germany?

It appears that the British and French companies in Rumania transferred their rights at the outbreak of war to the companies of countries not as yet involved, such as the United States and Holland, these in their turn transferring the rights to neutrals, which does not in the least prevent the Germans from helping themselves to this commodity. And when they were compelled to quit Rumania they did not leave in a nice condition what still remains of the wells and refineries.

Until 1939 most of the Rumanian Budget was based on oil taxes, and any decrease in the amount pumped-up created Budget difficulties. Foreign shareholders held the whip-hand and could take decisions that would affect the daily bread of a country. It was to remedy this unbearable situation that the nationalization of the subsoil was brought about.

First of the Liberators coming home to their base in the Middle East after the 2,400 mile there and back flight to bomb Ploesti, Rumanian oilfields centre. They swept in at less than 500 feet to drop nearly 300 tons of high explosives, mostly delayed action bombs, and several hundred incendiaries, over seven major targets in this immensely important oil area. They left all the major refineries burning, and long after the Liberators had passed there were reports of continued explosions in the neighbourhood. Months of planning preceded the attack, and rehearsals included the bombing of a reproduction of Ploesti in miniature, 3 model towns built in the Libyan Desert.

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Ex-King Carol planned to use his country's oil as a barrier against Hitler's marauding hordes. Throughout the winter of 1939-40 “Carol's Dyke”, which was to be better than the Maginot and Siegfried Lines, was being constructed at the frontiers. Instead of reinforces concrete and steel it was made of mud, and was to be flooded with oil and set on fire if Hitler should attempt to invade the country. Carol felt he could rely on powerful potential allies in Britain and France. But his confidence was killed by a message from London, why, it was asked, was Rumania selling more oil to Germany than to Britain?

Mr. Chamberlain must have known that Rumania badly needed both money and armaments. Britain had told her that she was not much interested in Rumanian oil, as she could get better quality elsewhere and at a cheaper rate. Germany, on the other hand, was willing to pay anything, guns, tanks or gold. Headlines began to appear in the papers: “Scotland bombed by German planes using Rumanian oil”, or “British merchantmen sunk by German planes using Rumanian oil”. The general verdict was that Rumania had been treacherous.

But who sold, this Rumanian oil to Germany? Was it the Rumanian people? Was it Carol? Or was it the foreign oil companies? The Rumanian Government could control quotas, but the selling was managed by those who actually held the concessions. The Government collected taxes on production and exports, but did not act as a selling agency. Carol established a Board whose duty it was to keep a strict watch on the dealing of the foreign companies, but this only made matters worse for Britain, as this Oil Board was considered a further infringement of the property rights of the companies.

Happily, the Allies had very thoroughly attended to Ploesti. On August 1, 1943, in full daylight, a force of Liberators flew 2,400 miles in all, and wrought destruction there from tree-top height. The Astro-Romana refinery, the biggest plant of its kind in Europe, was heavily damaged. The Creditul Minier refinery, the only one producing high-octane aviation fuel, was completely covered with bombs, there was a direct hit on Colombia Aquila, the fourth largest refinery, many explosions were reported from the pumping-station of the Giurgiu pipe-line. But the greatest damage of all was inflicted on the Americana Romana and Orion refinery.

It is known that for three months offensive in Russia the Germans required about a million tons of oil, the maximum refinery capacity of all Rumania was 32,000 tons a day, of which nearly 25,000 were refined at Ploesti. Now this vital supply had been almost closed down and German engineers in Rumania was as unemployed as those who went towards the Caucasus with Hitler's army.

The War Illustrated

 

The operation to bomb the Ploesti oil refineries by the USAAF 9th Air Force, codenamed “Operation Tidal Wave” turned out to be one of the most costly raids in the European theatre.

178 B24 Liberators set out at low level to attack the nine refineries in the Rumanian oilfield. 162 made it to the target and bombed their objectives.

This was the second American raid on Ploesti; the first raid was referred to as the HALPRO raid, and unfortunately that raid alerted the Nazis to the vulnerability so they massively increased the defences including AA guns and Luftwaffe fighters.

The run-in at low level evaded the Nazi radar defences and the attack went ahead as planned, but the German air defences took their toll of the bombers on their return journey.

Only 88 of the Liberators made it back to their bases in Libya and of those 55 were battle damaged, and one of the bombers had 365 shell holes in it when it landed after a 14 hour flight.

All together 310 aircrew were killed, 108 captured and 78 interned in a neutral country.

The damage following the raid was repaired within weeks, after which production was even greater than before the raid, so all-in-all “Operation Tidal Wave” was a costly failure.

Operation Tidal Wave on Wikipedia

 

Why did it take so long before the allies made the decision to attack and bomb the Ploesti oil refineries.

 

Why weren’t the oil refineries attacked earlier?

In my opinion it was a case of aircraft range, Ploesti was beyond the range of bombers from Britain, even for the Liberator which had a greater range than the Lancaster and they would have had to fly over enemy territory where they would be vulnerable to anti-aircraft guns and fighter defences, not to mention the loss of surprise. There was also the problem of getting fully laden bombers over the Alps too.

So the attack had to be mounted from somewhere closer to Rumania, such as North Africa which was still in Axis hands until the completion of “Operation Torch” which finally cleared Libya and Tunisia of Nazi forces by May 1943.

Any other locations such as Italy, Cyprus or Portugal were also impossible for various reasons including neutrality and Nazi occupation.

 

Also politics had a lot to do with it, especially when the media started placing headlines such as stated in the 1st post ...