Ploiești, formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located 56 km (35 mi) north of Bucharest.
World War II (1939–1945) involved sustained strategic bombing of railways, harbours, cities, workers' and civilian housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory. Strategic bombing as a military strategy is distinct both from close air support of ground forces and from tactical air power. During World War II, many military strategists of air power believed that air forces could win major victories by attacking industrial and political infrastructure, rather than purely military targets. Strategic bombing often involved bombing areas inhabited by civilians, and some campaigns were deliberately designed to target civilian populations in order to terrorize them and disrupt their usual activities. International law at the outset of World War II did not specifically forbid the aerial bombardment of cities – despite the prior occurrence of such bombing during World War I (1914–1918), the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
Operation Tidal Wave was an air attack by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) based in Libya on nine oil refineries around Ploiești, Romania on 1 August 1943, during World War II. It was a strategic bombing mission and part of the "oil campaign" to deny petroleum-based fuel to the Axis powers. The mission resulted in "no curtailment of overall product output".
John Louis Jerstad was a United States Army Air Forces officer who was posthumously awarded the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. He received the medal for his actions as a B-24 pilot during a raid on Ploieşti, Romania, in World War II.
The Bucharest World War II bombings were primarily Allied bombings of railroad targets and those of the Oil Campaign of World War II, but included a bombing by Nazi Germany after the 1944 coup d'état. Bucharest stored and distributed much of Ploiești's refined oil products.
Alfred Gerstenberg was a German Luftwaffe general. During World War II, he organized a very effective defensive perimeter around oil fields in Ploiești, Romania.
Lloyd Herbert "Pete" Hughes Jr.,, was a pilot who held the rank of Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Operation Tidal Wave during World War II.
The emergence of oil production in the territory now known as Romania dates back to 1857, with oil facilities gaining strategic military significance in 1916 during World War I. Throughout World War II, the Kingdom of Romania held the position as the largest oil producer in Europe, second only to the USSR, whose primary oil source was located in Azerbaijan. The oil extracted from Romania played a pivotal role in Axis military operations, a fact underscored in Adolf Hitler's 1942 speech.
John Riley Kane was a colonel in the United States Army Air Forces and later the United States Air Force who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, in World War II. A native of Texas, Kane joined the Army Air Forces after graduating from Baylor University. During World War II, he commanded the 98th Bombardment Group, a B-24 Liberator unit, and conducted bombing missions in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for leading the 98th in Operation Tidal Wave, a low-altitude attack on oil refineries in Ploieşti, Romania. After the war, he commanded a series of airfields in the U.S. and served a year and a half in North Africa before his retirement.
The Allied oil campaign of World War II pitted the RAF and the USAAF against facilities supplying Nazi Germany with petroleum, oil, and lubrication (POL) products. It formed part of the immense Allied strategic bombing effort during the war. The targets in Germany and in Axis-controlled Europe included refineries, synthetic-fuel factories, storage depots and other POL-infrastructure.
Petrobrazi Refinery is one of the largest Romanian refineries and one of the largest in Eastern Europe, located near Ploiești, Prahova County having as a main activity the processing of Romanian oil but also has a separate unit specialised in processing chemical products. The refinery had two processing modules with a nominal capacity of 3.5 million tonnes/year each and a total capacity of 7 million tonnes/year. Now only one of the two modules is operational and has a capacity of 4.5 million tonnes/year or 90,000 bbl/d (14,000 m3/d), 1 million tonnes larger due to an investment program from 1999 - 2000. The facility is connected by pipeline to virtually all of the oil fields in Romania and to the Port of Constanța by a pipeline with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes/day.
The 343d Bomb Squadron is a United States Air Force Reserve squadron, assigned to the 307th Operations Group. It is stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana.
Krikor Amirian was an Armenian Revolutionary, who participated in the establishment of the First Republic of Armenia.
During World War II, Operation Margarethe II was the name for a planned invasion of Romania by German forces in conjunction with those of Hungary and Bulgaria if the Romanian government decided to surrender to the Allies and switch sides. Although initially abandoned within a few weeks at the start of 1944, after King Michael's coup on 23 August 1944 and Antonescu's arrest, Hitler ordered the operation to commence. Led by Luftwaffe General Alfred Gerstenberg, then by General Reiner Stahel, the operation ultimately failed to occupy Bucharest and overthrow Michael and the new government.
The Raid on Constanța was an attack by the Soviet Black Sea Fleet on the Romanian port of Constanța on 26 June 1941, shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, and resulted in the only encounter between major warships in the Black Sea during World War II. The attack was intended to be a coordinated effort between the fleet's ships and aircraft to split the attention of the defenders, but the bombers did not attack at the designated times.
The Western Allied Campaign in Romania consisted of war declarations and aerial operations during the Second World War by eight Western Allied countries against Romania which itself was primarily engaged on the Eastern Front in fighting against the Soviet Union.
Walter Travis Stewart was an American combat veteran who served as a pilot in the United States Army Air Force in WW2. He is best known for the role he played in Operation Tidal Wave, a low-level bombing mission to the oilfields of Ploiești, Romania, which was the 31st of 32 combat missions Stewart would fly during the war. After completing a war-bonds tour back home and his 32nd combat mission, Stewart transitioned to the Reserves where he continued to fly for the remainder of his 36-year career, retiring at the rank of colonel.
Operation Reunion was a USAAF military operation aimed at repatriating Allied prisoners of war from Romania after the latter's change of sides in 1944. The operation was preceded by Operation Gunn, named after Lieutenant Colonel James A. Gunn, which had the objective of establishing the connection between Bucharest and the 15th Air Force command from Bari.
Grupul 6 Vânătoare was a fighter group of the Royal Romanian Air Force (ARR) formed on 7 June 1940. The group participated in the World War 2 campaign of Romania on the Eastern Front and in the defense of the country against the Western Allied bombing raids. The group was disbanded in October 1944 as its pilots were transferred to Grupul 1 Vânătoare after converting to the Bf 109 from the IAR 81.
