U.S. NINTH AIR FORCE

Ploesti (Ploiești), Romania • August 1, 1943 Allied war planners had long favored a second, much more damaging air strike on the Ploesti (Ploiești) oil com­plex, the center of Roma­nia’s natural oil indus­try some 35 miles/­56 km north of the capital, Bucha­rest. In mid-June 1942, 13 U.S. B‑24 Lib­er­ators lifted off from a British air­field in Egypt, crossed…