 There's a door to the halls of memory for you. March 1944, Italy. Seven months after surrendering to the Allies, Italian airfields resounded with growing American airmines. From rebuilt access bases, the Allies were able to attack Nazi targets beyond the working range of bombers based in England. Out of the many sky battles, Allied air forces had gradually achieved air superiority. Arrived at closure to plan new strategy with General Nathan Twining, the 15th Air Force CG. Spots and acre were handing Twining the biggest job his bombers had ever undertaken. The 15th Air Force soon got the news. They had been ordered to fly through Hitler's back door and destroy his oil industry. General Twining and his staff took on the job. Gentlemen, you just received a new directive establishing target priority for the bomber offensive of the 15th Air Force. The decision has been announced. We will destroy oil refineries and synthetic oil plants. But, does our intelligence show us in regard to these targets within our area, more than 50% of the refineries and synthetic plants producing gasoline for the exercise within range of the 15th Air Force production of gasoline is represented by the 10 large refineries around the Westin. While these refineries attacked Nazi targets by the past force operating from Kenya, recent polar reconnaissance revealed that with one exception, all refineries are currently operating at home. And when you've heard about them, it's a big challenge ahead. The knockout of the Westin means Germany will be defiant of one third of its oil resource. We bomber boys who moved up from Africa started the Ploesti air siege. On the morning of April 5th, 94 B-17s swung into formation. Close by were 136 B-24s. We were strong. We expected the enemy's coastal radar network in Albania and Yugoslavia to spot us as we made our approach over the Adriatic Sea. Although it was still early in our 600-mile run to target, we got into flax suits. They're a kind of insurance. Climbing to altitude, we skimmed the Yugoslav mountains. Mighty peaceful. Peaceful until they bristled with flak guns. We were soon to find out the hard way that Ploesti had become the third best defended spot on the continent. This was a high altitude mission, 21 to 24,000 feet. As we neared the target, we edged into tighter formations. Each had top cover. We all remembered a 1943 Ploesti mission with 177 liberators in which we lost 54 planes. Would this be like last year's mission? This one might be worse. 250 enemy fighters outnumbering hours 301 attack. The enemy fighters almost had enough. By the time we crossed the Sophia Belgrade line, our lightnings moved in for the knockout punch. Then we ran into flak. 256 heavy guns filled the sky with black deadly mushrooms. Intense flak, the enemy had added smoke. We could almost smell the nauseating acid fog. 2,000 smokepots effectively covered Ploesti. Accurate visual bombing was impossible. At headquarters, they knew something had to be done. After many missions, the target was still effectively protected. On 10 June, operations decided on a new tactic. We're going to guide Bob from Mono America tomorrow using P-38. It was 1,200 miles. We buzzed the vocals. The smoke screen had to be linked. We climbed the bombing altitude and some of us dumped our wing tanks as we got close to the enemy. After hitting the refineries, we attacked German fighter units on the ground. Our P-38s got through the smoke. The mission was successful. We had destroyed 29 enemy planes and had damaged three refineries. But the job wasn't done. Operations increased. Servicing went around the clock. The plan called for the bombers to be on target during the morning hours and stop Ploesti's working day. Now they prepared for 600 plane missions. They tried new electronic devices for blind bombing. Everyone hoped the sheer concentrated weight of tonnage would crack German and Romanian defenses. Ploesti sort of got under everyone's skin. After hitting it from the air, the flyers rehashed it on the ground. The men ate it, slept it, cursed it, especially the flak and smoke. The four-month campaign since April had cost 1,900 men, the crews of 189 bombers and 41 fighters. Early in August, General Twining called a meeting of our group commanders. I've called him today to discuss future air operations against Ploesti's oil refineries. This strategic air force during the next three days will attack potentially night and day with maximum effort against all primaries in the area. We got over Ploesti all right, but the enemy gave us a warm welcome. They rammed up more than 45,000 rounds of flak. That didn't stop us. During three days of smoky air siege, we lost 30 more planes, 23 to flak. But now we had over 100 mustangs as escorts. The enemy jabbed, and our 51 swooped into the battle. Enemy fighters' strength fell apart. Displaying courage far beyond the call of duty, our boys drove the enemy into the ground. Flak kept our bomber crews on their toes. We waited through it all the way to the target. The full weight of our attack fell on Ploesti. That did it. The steady pounding whittled away 90% of Romanian oil production. The global and greedy designs of an Axis dictator were consumed in a blazing oily Ploesti. This was the crowning climax to our air siege. In only five months, this had become the graveyard for one-third of Hitler's oil. Oil, a pre-war weak point in the Nazi military supply system, became a bottleneck under repeated Allied blows. The bombs had crushed gasoline-producing, storage, and shipping centers. Vamely, Germany's 350,000 slave workers tried to repair the damage. But now all the refineries in the rich Ploesti cluster were damaged or knocked out. We hurt them, but they hurt us too. The Ploesti campaign had crushed us 270 heavy bombers, 49 fighters, and their crews. Each plane and each man helped to shorten the war. As we hit the donut line, we were still flying the mission, and we wondered about our missing air crews. How many would come back? The answer came sooner than we had expected. 12 days after the last bombing of Ploesti, we got a real thrill. An airlift of 56 transport-converted B-17s were bringing back our buddies who had been forced down. Romania had surrendered to the Russians. In just three days, more than 1,100 returned as part of Operation Reunion. This was the first mass prisoners of war liberation. Of the first 600, only 10 were stretchy cases. All in all, considering what they'd been through, they were a lighthearted bunch. It was good to be back. Yes, it was a day to remember that day at Pogia Airport. These were the first, and General Twining made it plain how glad he was to have his men back. He had planned something special. From his Coral Sea experience, he remembered what privation meant. First, he gave his men medical care and food. Then, God speeded on their next mission. Their new checkpoint was the Statue of Liberty. Their target was home. The 15th Air Force, by burning Ploesti off the target list, did more than merely destroy enemy oil production. They brought eventual disaster at compounded interest. The German war machine was stalled for lack of fuel. Later chapters will show Allied air power accurately blasting the vitals of the Axis with the hard-won bombing experience of the United States Air Force.