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To: Prophet in the wilderness
Their mission was to bomb a German oil field.

Close, but no seegar.

The refinery complex at Ploesti was a group of five refienries ringing the town with pipelines and interconnections set up in such a way that any of the refineries could be bypassed in the event there was a problem, in order to keep the flow of petroleum products moving. It was essential to the Reich's war effort.

It was also defended by more antiaircraft batteries than Berlin.

The loss rate on the raids there was near 50%, and greater in some units. In order to reduce the time the antiaircraft gunners to acquire and fire at the planes, and to increase accuracy of bombing, they came in at low level. The bombs had timed fuses to keep from blowing the planes in the formation around the sky when they went off (they went in that low).

The raids were successful and hurt the Axis war effort severely.

36 posted on 07/06/2008 8:20:06 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

The real second front in WW-II in Europe was in the air.


42 posted on 07/07/2008 4:06:24 AM PDT by wendy1946
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