On D-Day, Let's Not Forget the 15th
“He who owns the oil will own the world.”
French diplomat Victor Henry Berenger, 1924.
Seventy years ago this month, as Gen. Dwight Eisenhower launched the greatest invasion in history on Normandy’s beaches, a largely forgotten group of American warriors waged an aerial campaign on the southern flank of Europe. Their target was the oil fields of Ploesti, Romania, perhaps the most heavily guarded real estate on earth..
In the spring and summer of 1944 the fighters, bombers, and reconnaissance planes of the U.S. Fifteenth Army Air Force accomplished their vital mission: they choked off the major petroleum supply to Hitler’s war machine. That December, when the Panzers ran out of fuel in the Battle of the Bulge, in large part the hard-pressed Allies could thank the “Forgotten Fifteenth.”
Everybody who knows anything about World War II aviation knows of “The Mighty Eighth” Air Force that flew from England from 1942 to 1945. Hardly anyone can name any of the bomber, fighter, recon, or special operations groups of the Fifteenth that conducted the southern half of the Allied bombing offensive, besides the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group.
Between November 1943 and May 1945 the Fifteenth flew from bases around Foggia, Italy, with a lasting effect on the course of the war. That reason was summarized in one word: oil.
Hitler’s Balkan petroleum sources lay far beyond the reach of British-based bombers. Therefore, the Fifteenth was handed the major task of turning off the oil flow that fueled about one-third of the Wehrmacht. The importance of the mission—and the cost—already had been demonstrated in a low-level attack against the Ploesti complex in August 1943, incurring spectacular losses.
However, because the Fifteenth flew in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO), it was largely overlooked in favor of the Eighth. The reasons were geographical, institutional, and promotional. Veterans of “the forgotten air force” insist that war correspondents preferred London, England, to Foggia, Italy.
Despite the dearth of PR, the Fifteenth produced many outstanding airmen. Its first leader was Jimmy Doolittle, who learned the trade of a strategic air commander in the Mediterranean before moving to England in January 1944. He was succeeded by Nathan Twining, chief of staff of the independent U.S. Air Force from 1953 to 1957.
At the cockpit level, the Fifteenth had two posthumous Medal of Honor recipients: B-17 bombardier David Kingsley who gave his parachute harness to a wounded gunner, and B-24 pilot Donald Puckett who remained with his doomed plane rather than abandon some crew members. Both died on missions against Romania in 1944.
Fighter pilots included 22-year-old Captain John Voll (21 victories) and Major Herschel Green (18), a squadron commander at age 23.
An unappreciated aspect of Fifteenth Air Force operations is the variety of opponents it faced. Apart from the Luftwaffe, Twining’s enemies included Fascist Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. In fact, due to MTO geography, the Fifteenth not only fought more Axis nations than the Eighth, but crossed more borders as well. The Fifteenth also flew in France, Austria, Albania, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Soviet Union.
On June 6, with the world’s attention focused on France, the Fifteenth was expanding the air war far eastward. Bombers and fighters flew the first U.S.-Soviet shuttle mission, bombing Axis targets in Hungary and Romania while operating from Ukrainian bases.
By V-E Day the Fifteenth had lost some 2,500 aircraft including more than 1,800 bombers. Its seven fighter groups claimed nearly 1,800 enemy aircraft shot down while producing 74 aces.
Meanwhile, let’s pay tribute to veterans of the Fifteenth Air Force—which should not be forgotten on the anniversary of D-Day.
