Overview

'If it is granted that the successful destruction of the target would warrant the possible expenditure of the entire force...' So wrote Major General Lewis Brereton, the US Ninth Air Force commander in the Middle East, as the planners contemplated the options of a high or low level attack on the oil refineries at Ploesti in Rumania. If this source of 40 per cent of Germany's oil could be eliminated, it would deal a vital bodyblow to the Third Reich's ability to wage war, and a surprise attack by heavy B-24 Liberators flying at tree-top height was considered the best method of achieving success. Three bomb groups from the Eighth Air Force based in Britain flew out to join two groups of the Ninth already in North Africa, the combined force of 179 aircraft destined to carry out the first massed low-level heavy bomber mission in history. The Ploesti Raid took place on Sunday, August 1, 1943 and, but for a navigational error which put the leading formation on a course away from the target, the operation might have resulted in the destruction of the seven chosen targets. However, by the time the mistake was realised, the defences were on the alert and over 20 Liberators were brought down in and around Ploesti. A further 35 aircraft were lost. Although the operation resulted in the award of five Medals of Honor - America's highest decoration for bravery - the cost was high: 308 airmen lost their lives and 208 were taken prisoner or interned. Out of the 1,753 men who are known to have set out on the mission, a total of 516 had failed to return. 300 illustrations

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9781870067553

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"""...still provides detailed historical and travel information that supplements and enhances internet resources.""-- ""Journal of Military History"""

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�You haven't talked to THE expert on the Great War until you have talked to Miss Coombs.' So ran one letter received at the Imperial War Museum, London, where for 36 years, from 1946 until 1982, Rose Coombs worked � in later years as Special Collections Officer. Her interest in battlefields began at an early age, influenced largely by her father who served in the RAOC, but it was not until after the Second World War (in which she served as a Radar Operator with Nos. 10 and 11 Groups, RAF), that she was able to realise her ambition, through her position at the Imperial War Museum, to visit the battlefields of Europe. During the years that followed, she had the opportunity to make hundreds of visits to the Western Front of 1914-18, on many occasions acting as guide to ex-Servicemen's groups returning to the battlefields. She accompanied authors writing on the period and lectured to groups of all ages, giving freely of her detailed knowledge of the terrain, its history, and the units and personalities involved. In 1976, Miss Coombs combined years of study, travel and research into the production, with After the Battle, of the first edition of Before Endeavours Fade � a name specially chosen by her to match the initial letters of the BEF � the acronym for the British Expeditionary Force which had set out for France in 1914. She constantly revised and updated �BEF' through five editions until her death on January 7, 1991. After the Battle's Editor Karel Margry then took over the task of keeping the guide up to date.

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