<text id=00he0813><title>Confusion Near the Target</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Confusion Near the Target</hdr><body>
<p>They came out of clouds and over the mountains, down the other side of the Pindus, over the Danube and the fertile plains beyond, letting down for their runs to the three initial points northwest of Ploesti. The leading 376th made a wrong turn, mistaking another town for its IP; the 93rd, maintaining formation discipline and radio silence, followed. They flew directly toward Bucharest, and were nearly there before discovering the error. They swung back toward the northeast, now far off course, with the attack plan destroyed and with the defenders both alerted and informed of the target.
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<p>Only six B-24s from the 376th hit their assigned targets; the rest and the 93rd dropped on targets of opportunity, most of which had been assigned to other groups. The 44th and 98th made their bomb runs, one on each side of a railroad, and were hit hard by heavy and accurate fire from a German flak train that was steaming at full throttle along the rails. Kane and Johnson led their groups into an exploding target array, identified and bombed their own targets amid the flames and blasts of erupting tanks of fuel. The 389th reached its target with all of its force intact, and destroyed the refinery at Campina with accurate bombing.
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<p>It was a hell. The refinery tanks, bursting in spectacular gouts of flame, scorched the paint on the low-flying B-24s. Heavy smoke hid key reference points, concealing factory chimneys, power lines and other obstacles. Fighters harassed them. When they came off the target and headed for home, they were a badly mauled force.
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<p>Forty-one bombers had been lost in the action over the targets, and another 13 on the way in or out. About 42 per cent of the refinery capacity was destroyed. It was far from enough; Ploesti had been running at about 60 per cent of capacity for lack of crude oil. It took the Germans a few days to repair some pipes, open some valves, and get the fuel flowing again.
