In this article:
Ploesti oilfields
The Ploesti oilfields in Romania were Germany’s single most important fuel source. As a result, in 1943 the oilfields became a primary target for American strategic bombers.
As told by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver in his book Bloody Skies, XV Fighter Command Against all Odds, by late May 1944, it had been found that the biggest problem the Ploești campaign faced was the fact that large formations of heavy bombers flying at 25,000 feet could be picked up by German radar when they were far enough out that there was time to deploy the smoke generators in the refineries, so that by the time the bombers arrived, the target was so obscured that accurate bombing was difficult and often impossible.
In the face of this, planners organized another low-level attack that would prevent the enemy having the necessary warning time to obscure the target. This time, the attackers would be US Army Air Forces (USAAF) P-38s, which could hit the Românaˇ Americana refinery, primary producer of high-grade aviation gasoline for the Luftwaffe. The 82nd Fighter Group would dive-bomb the refinery, protected by the Lightnings of the 1st Fighter Group.
At dawn on June 10, 1944, 46 82nd Fighter Group Lightnings from the 95th, 96th, and 97th Fighter Squadrons, each carrying a 1,000pound bomb on the right wing shackle and a 310-gallon ferry tank on the left, took of under the leadership of 96th Squadron CO Lieutenant Colonel William Litton.
At the same time, 48 P-38s of the 1st Fighter Group’s 27th, 71st, and 94th Squadrons led by mission leader First Lieutenant Armour Miller took off from their base at Salsola. The Lightning formations joined up over Manfredonia, Italy at 1,500 feet.
As low as possible
The pilots stayed as low as possible when they crossed the mountains into Romania. Nevertheless, German air-defense radar spotted the fighters over Yugoslavia before they entered Romanian airspace, losing the element of surprise.
As the American force got closer, all operational FARR (Fortele Aeriene Regale Romane, Royal Romanian Air Force) IAR-80 fighters of Grupul 6 – led by 15-victory top ace Capitan Aviator Dan Vizante – took off and clawed for altitude.
As the 1st Group formation passed Popesti-Leordeni airfield, pilots in the 27th Squadron spotted four Do-217 bombers attempting to land. Tree fights of the 71st Squadron broke off from the group formation and went after the bombers, downing all four. However, they were now separated from the rest just as 20 Romanian Air Force IAR-80s that they misidentified as Fw-190s dived on them. Four P-38s went down in the first pass as the others tried to turn with the enemy. All the advantages the heavy P-38 had over the lighter IAR-80 at high altitude were canceled out in dogfights waged at altitudes between 100 and 300 feet.
The battle was fought in a shallow valley filled with more than 40 aircraft. Airplanes of both sides fought erratically, attacking while trying to avoid one another and the ground. Two P-38s went down when they snagged the ground with their wingtips, an indication of how hot the battle was, while two IAR-80s collided and several others were hit by their own defensive ground fire.
Romanian IAR 80 fighters shooting down 23 USAAF P-38s
In the four-minute battle, the 23 intercepting Romanian pilots claimed 23 P-38s for a loss of two of their own. The 71st Squadron lost nine of its 16 P-38s. Second Lieutenant Herbert “Stub” Hatch Jr. – element lead for Cragmore Green Flight – managed to shoot down five IAR-80s. His success made Hatch one of the few P-38 “aces in a day.” He later recalled the battle: “At the end of the little shoot-down over the enemy airfield, as we pulled up slightly of the airfield to turn back north again, somebody hollered, ‘Cragmore, break left for Chrissake.’ I instinctively looked off to my left and there was a whole flock of what appeared to be Fw-190s headed in from 2 o’clock high to my position. (I later learned they were Romanian IAR-80s.)”
The entire 27th Squadron broke to the left. As Hatch continued around, an IAR-80 flashed past and pulled right across in front of him. “He was so close – fifty to seventy-five yards away – that all I could see in my ring sight was the belly of his fuselage and the wing roots. I opened fire with all four of my .50-caliber machine guns and the 20mm cannon, and I damn near blew him in half. I blew a two-foot hole in his fuselage directly beneath the cockpit.”
Bloody Skies, XV Fighter Command Against all Odds is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: Planck and Umeyou via Wikipedia and U.S. Air Force
