Fall '07 Bookshelf: Heroes
Tom Miller
Nov 06, 2007
Into the Fire: Ploesti, The Most Fateful Mission of World War II, by Duane Schultz. Westholme, $26 (320p) ISBN 978-1-159416-051-6
On August 1, 1943, 177 B-24 Liberators from the Ninth Air Force lifted off from an airfield near Benghazi in Northern Africa bound for Ploesti, Romania. Their mission, codenamed Operation Tidal Wave, was to destroy the oil facilities ringing the city that supplied the majority of the fuel for Hitler's tanks and planes. Success, Allied planners estimated, would "shorten the war against Germany by at least six months." There were risks involved, but planners believed that the benefits justified the risks.
The idea of targeting the oil refineries was approved by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. With such high-level support, planners brushed aside objections and criticisms.
And, there were plenty raised. The "ungainly" B-24's were derided as a "flying coffins." Intelligence about German defenses was "misleading" and "inadequate" and the decision to approach the target at treetop level was regarded as suicidal by many pilots. Col. John "Killer" Kane, who would command one of the five bombardment groups assigned to the mission, labeled the plan "'idiotic.'"
Whatever their objections, the pilots and crews were determined to make the best of a bad situation. What they didn't know, however, would kill many of them. Despite assurances that Ploesti was lightly defended, the Germans had fortified the town with hundreds of anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons, and fighter aircraft. Ploesti was "one of the most heavily defended targets in the world," and "a death trap for anyone who dared attack it."
The fight over Ploesti lasted twenty-seven minutes and cost the attackers one-third of their bombers and crews. 532 airmen were killed or captured and another 440 wounded.
Despite the carnage - and the steadfast courage of the air crews - the benefits fell far short of balancing the costs. In the chaos and confusion over the target, three of the refineries weren't hit at all and most of the others were quickly repaired.
This bittersweet tale of arrogance, wishful thinking, sacrifice, and heroism is recounted with grace and empathy by Schultz (The Last Battle Station:
The Saga of the U.S.S. Houston). Drawing on diaries, official histories, and interviews with survivors, Schultz layers the narrative with a mélange of intimate and unforgettable portraits of the heroes of Ploesti. Into the Fire is a searing experience.
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Copyright 2008 by Tom Miller
