ploesti

A REAL GOOD WAR by SAM HALPERT

San Antonio Express: Halpert's spellbinding novel of men in aerial combat

will be compared to "Twelve O'Clock High". "The War Lover" and "Memphis Belle."

It will not suffer from the comparison

New York Times Book Review: What makes this book engrossing is its

evocation of the fine line between a close call and a tragedy, not to mention

the way guilt is detonated by war's deadly absurdity.

Publishers Weekly: Halpert's absorbing debut. Gripping fiction

Kirkus Reviews: Flying high above Platoon-movie cliches

An inspiring debut. Compelling suspense

Miami Herald: Harrowing portrait of the pitilessness of war

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Writing this sharp is its own justification

Tidalwave, the August '43 Raid on Ploesti

The Combined Bomber Offensive (Operation Pointblank) evolved beginning with the entrance of the United States into World War II. The Army Air Forces (AAF) were committed to "destruction of selected vital elements of the German military and industrial machine through precision bombing in daylight." The Royal Air Force was to concentrate upon "mass air attacks of industrial areas at night, to break down morale" and thus limit German production.

When this division of work was established at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, the AAF did not have sufficient crews or aircraft for sustained strategic operations. By summer of 1943 priority targets were worked out and some ambitious AAF raids scheduled. Priorities for the offensive were aircraft manufacturing plants, anti-friction bearings factories (on the theory that stopping key industries would have large effects on the Germany war effort), petroleum refineries, and other targets.

The most inviting oil target was at Ploesti which was thought to produce a third of Germany's liquid fuel requirements. The Rumanian targets were at the limit of the range of American aircraft and could not be reached from England. The oil fields and refineries had been ineffectually attacked by the Russian Air Force and, in January 1942, by American bombers from the Middle East.

Planning for a major mission began in earnest when the Germans in Tunisian were close to defeat. Five groups of B-24 Liberators were assigned to the task, three of them borrowed from the Eighth Air Force in the United Kingdom. Under command of the Ninth Air Force, the groups practiced low-level formation flying and bombing at bases near Bengazi, Libya.

After dawn on 1 August 1943, 177 B-24s under the command of Brigadier General Uzal G. Ent, who flew with the lead group, the 376th Bombardment Group, the most experienced heavy bomber unit in the Mediterranean area approached Ploesti. The route was past Corfu Island and northeast over the mountains of Albania and Yugoslavia.

The formations, somewhat disorganized by the loss of the lead navigator, descended to 500 feet at Pitesti, 65 miles from the targets. Halfway to the initial point where the final turn was to be made into Ploesti, the 376th Group, followed by the 93rd Bombardment Group, made an erroneous turn southeast toward Bucharest. The other bomb groups, the 389th, 98th, and 44th, continued as briefed. When Ent discovered the error, both groups headed back toward Ploesti. The 376th was told to strike targets of opportunity, and the 93rd attacked the original targets from the opposite direction as briefed.

The return flight to Libya was disorganized and under heavy German fighter attack for much of the way. In all, 54 planes were lost, but the bombing destroyed up to 42 percent of Ploesti's cracking capacity. The AAF's 30 percent losses meant that a follow-up mission was not practical, and with no opposition, the Germans were able to repair the facilities rapidly. Five officers received the Medal of Honor for bravery on this mission.

Sixty years later, It is still difficult to think of Merseberg without recalling the feelings of alarm and dread it held for crews in briefing huts of the 8th Air Force. Deep in the heart of central Germany, site of Leuna, the world's largest synthetic oil refinery, and by mid 1944, the primary producer of oil for the Third Reich. Merseberg became Hitler's most fortified stronghold in all Germany, encircled with hundreds of flak battery emplacements and numerous squadrons of Luftwaffe Messerschmitts, Focke-Wulfs, and the world's first operational jet aircraft. A plywood replica constructed four miles south of the main Leuna refinery deceived many a bombardier, as Merseberg, the major source of oil for the Nazi war machine was to be more heavily defended than the capital, Berlin.

On November 2, 1944, the 8th Air Force lost 38 B-17's in one of its many missions to Merseberg. Our bomb group, the 91st, was hit by over 100 FW-90's and Me 109's. In the ensuing aerial battle, a total of 15 of our 36 crews missing in action that day.

Nineteen days later, November 21, the 8th sent 421 B-17's back to Merseberg with our Group, the 91st leading. The weather was bad from the start, and by the time we were over Germany, we found it close to impossible to maintain formation inside massive clouds reaching higher than our altitude at 25000 feet. Our squadron commander, Major Immanuel Klette decided to lead the groups in a descent seeking to find a break in the clouds. When we finally broke through at 17000 feet,.we discovered that more than half of the Groups following us had left to seek secondary targets, targets of opportunity, or returned to their bases. Merseberg at 25000 feet was perilous enough, 17000 feet was madness.

Nevertheless, our Group, the 91st, bombed Merseberg from 17000 feet and miraculously lost only one ship of our 36 aircraft to flak. We discovered at interrogation that the Group behind us, the 398th, decided not to follow us, but to climb above the cloud cover. When they broke out at 31000 feet, over 50 FW-90's jumped them from out of the sun and destroyed 5 of them.

Later that evening we were amazed to learn about the ship from our Group last seen on the return home with two engines out and the third about to blow any minute. The pilot put the ship on auto-pilot before the crew and he bailed out.over enemy territory. The crew was captured and spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp. The empty ship flew on without any of the crew on board until it ran out of gas and landed on its own in a snow covered pasture in Belgium where it was discovered by two bewildered British soldiers.

Sam Halpert

From U.S. STRATEGIC BOMB SURVEY 1945

Leuna (at Merseberg) was the largest of the synthetic plants and protected by a highly effective smoke screen and the heaviest flak concentration in Europe.

Air crews viewed a mission to Leuna as the most dangerous and difficult assignment of the air war. Leuna was hit on May 12 and put out of production. However, investigation of plant records and interrogation of Leuna's officials established that a force of several thousand men had it in partial operation in about 10 days. It was again hit on May 28 but resumed partial production on June 3 and reached 75 percent of capacity in early July. It was hit again on July 7 and again shut down but production started 2 days later and reached 53 percent of capacity on July 19. An attack on July 20 shut the plant down again but only for three days; by July 27 production was back to 35 percent of capacity. Attacks on July 28 and 29 closed the plant and further attacks on August 24, September 11, September 13, September 28 and October 7 kept it closed down. However, Leuna got started again on October 14 and although production was interrupted by a small raid on November 2, it reached 28 percent of capacity by November 20. Although there were 6 more heavy attacks in November and December (largely ineffective because of adverse weather), production was brought up to 15 percent of capacity in January and was maintained at that level until nearly the end of the war. From the first attack to the end,

production at Leuna averaged 9 percent of capacity. There were 22 attacks on Leuna, 20 by the Eighth Air Force and 2 by the RAF. Due to the urgency of keeping this plant

out of production, many of these missions were dispatched in difficult bombing weather. Consequently, the order of bombing accuracy on Leuna was not high as

Lt. Arnold J. O'Toole, pilot, flak bursts smashed through the center of his foot breaking several bones, the same burst severed several a/c controls. Lt. O'Toole refused to leave his seat or relinquish control of the a/c until the ship was out of danger from flak. He dragged himself back to the seat as the ship neared Bassingbourn and assisted in landing.

Lt. Elbert W. Weeks,pilot, on bomb run his co-pilot was killed and he was painfully wounded, yet he flew the ship without mentioning his wounds (broken right hand with severed arteries and wound in left thigh) until his co-pilot had been taken care of. He then allowed a tourniquet to be placed on his right arm and he landed the ship on a U.S. airstrip in France avoiding bomb craters and a bulldozer on the runway. Too weak from loss of blood, he had to be lifted from the plane, The a/c was so damaged, it had to be salvaged.

Sgt, Henry G. Saunders, top turret gunner, with great skill and presence of mind, removed co-pilot's body from seat, gave pilot first aid and assisted in flying the badly damaged a/c.

compared with other targets. To win the battle with Leuna a total of 6,552 bomber sorties were flown against the plant, 18,328 tons of bombs were dropped and an entire year was required.

"Today we have finished rebuilding the plants and tomorrow the bombers will come again." Saying attributed to German workers engaged in rebuilding synthetic oil plants. Consumption of oil exceeded production from May 1944 on. Accumulated stocks were rapidly used up, and in six months were practically exhausted. The loss of oil production was sharply felt by the armed forces. In August the final run-in-time for aircraft engines was cut from two hours to one-half hour. For lack of fuel, pilot training, previously cut down, was further curtailed. Through the summer, the movement of German Panzer Divisions in the field was hampered more and more seriously as a result of losses in combat and mounting transportation difficulties, together with the fall in fuel production. By December, according to Speer, the fuel shortage had reached catastrophic proportions. When the Germans launched their counter-offensive on December 16, 1944, their reserves of fuel were insufficient to support the operation. They counted on capturing Allied stocks. Failing in this, many panzer units were lost when they ran out of gasoline. In February and March of 1945 the Germans massed 1,200 tanks on the Baranov bridgehead at the Vistula to check the Russians. They were immobilized for lack of gasoline and overrun.

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A REAL GOOD WAR by SAM HALPERT

San Antonio Express: Halpert's spellbinding novel of men in aerial combat will be compared to "Twelve O'Clock High". "The War Lover" and "Memphis Belle." It will not suffer from the comparison

New York Times Book Review: What makes this book engrossing is its evocation of the fine line between a close call and a tragedy, not to mention the way guilt is detonated by war's deadly absurdity.

Publishers Weekly: Halpert's absorbing debut. Gripping fiction

Kirkus Reviews: Flying high above Platoon-movie cliches. An inspiring debut. Compelling suspense

Miami Herald: Harrowing portrait of the pitilessness of war

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel Writing this sharp is its own justification