Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFENSE THROUGH WORLD WAR II
Figure 18. German railroad-mounted 128 mm guns. The best German
gunners manned the railroad-mounted 128 mm guns. Two dozen of the
powerful guns defended the Ploesti oil fields. (Adapted from USAF.)
American heavy bombers joined the fray with daylight attacks,
but they did not launch large raids into Germany until the
spring of 1943.
Oil was critical to war fighting, and Germany was short of
oil before the conflict. One key target was the oil complex at
Ploesti, Romania, that produced 35 percent of Germany’s
crude oil. After an ineffective attack by 13 American B-24s on
12 June 1942, the Army Air Forces (AAF) dispatched 178 heavy
bombers on a low-level attack on 1 August 1943. American intelligence
estimated Axis flak defenses at about 100 heavy guns
and several hundred light guns but encountered twice that
number (fig. 19). These guns, combined with the vulnerability
of the Liberators at low altitude, confusion of the battle, and
the mission’s long distance (over 2,300 miles round-trip) caused
heavy bomber losses. Fifty-four B-24s failed to return; the airmen
attributed the bulk of these losses to flak.
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