<text id=00he0607><title>The First Ploesti Raid</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>The First Ploesti Raid</hdr><body>
<p>Halverson Project No. 63 was another unit that had been scheduled to become part of 10AF in Burma, but fate rearranged things. Colonel Harry A. Halverson led a detachment of 23 brand-new Consolidated B-24D Liberator heavy bombers on a route that was planned to start in Florida and end with the bombing of Tokyo. They were to be based at airfields around Chengtu. in China's Szechwan Province, and operate from forward bases around Chekiang, from where they stood a better chance of making the round trip to Japan.
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<p>They were held at Khartoum on route, waiting for orders, because Japanese advances after the Doolittle raid had become a threat to the Chekiang region. It was early June 1942, and Congress had just got around to declaring war on three of the lesser Axis partners: Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. The biggest oil refinery available to Hitler's armies, a superlative target for a bombing strike, was in Ploesti, Romania.
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<p>Halverson's Project (HALPRO) got the assignment, and they never did make it to China. They moved from Khartoum to Fayid, on Egypt's Great Bitter Lake, to train and equip for the raid. It was a round trip of at least 2,600 miles (4185 km) and the planes were to recover at a base in Iraq. They would fly at night, over territory for which no charts were available, and where no lights would be showing. The B-24s had not seen combat with any USAAF units. The crews had never fired their guns or dropped their bombs in anger, and had never seen enemy air opposition.
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<p>The Royal Air Force at Sayid did all it could, helping with briefings, with supplies for the aircraft and crews, and with the fueling and arming. The Russians never responded to official requests for permission to land in their territory after the attack for refueling.
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<p>HALPRO took off late at night on 11 June 1942, on the first USAAF mission against any European target. A dozen of the 13 planes that took off reached and bombed Ploesti. There were no losses in personnel or aircraft. And there was no publicity after the attack. leaving Halverson's men puzzled and somewhat miffed. To this day, there is little known about the mission. But one thing is known: HALPRO was first to bomb in the European theater.
