The Significance of Ploesti
The attack by zoo American Liberators on the Rumanian oilfields and refineries at Ploesti last Sunday was a well-planned, daring and startling achievement. It proved that a vital target 1,200 miles distant from an Allied air-base is not immune from powerful and, as it turned out, devastating bombardment. The attack, planned by General Brereton, commander of the Ninth United States Army Air Force, was elaborately rehearsed, and was pushed through with such deadly effect on the refining installations, store-tanks and power- houses, that it is reckoned that at least a third of the Ploesti output will be stopped for many months. The bombers encountered heavy fighter resistance and A.A. fire, but flying low escaped some of the latter and made sure of their targets. They suffered severe losses, but themselves destroyed many enemy fighters. The attack, regarded as an isolated event, has accomplished much, having at one blow deprived the Germans - of large quantities of that high- grade aviation fuel whose supply is a constant source of anxiety to them. In that respect it is an achievement which may be com- pared with the destruction of the dams in the Ruhr and Eder valleys by the. R.A.F. last May. But regarded as a precedent, it is of still more sinister omen to the enemy. 'The more distant industrial plants in Germany and German-occupied territory can no longer be regarded as safe from aerial bombardment ; and if they can be attacked now, while our bases are still far distant, what will be the position when the bombers can operate from Northern Italy, some hundreds of miles nearer the production centres of the East?
