Soviet air raids on Romanian oil industry

by Luka Bilić

Soviet air raids on Romanian oil industry

One of Germany's maim weaknesses was its precarious oil supply situation. National consumption was squeezed to bare minimum (military and civilian) with adverse consequences on economy and military mobility. Bottlenecks such as ersatz rubber(also made out of oil) were implacable and precluded sustainable large mobile operations, also operationally from very start German and Italian surface fleets were virtually immobilized for the lack of fuel and from 1942 even Luftwaffe had to make operational sacrifices due to oil shortage.

Romania in 1941 subserviently provided around 60 000 barrels per day to Germany(84% of own production!), or some 35% of total German military and civilian needs. During Summer of 1941 while Wehrmacht reigned supreme on the eastern front (because of surprise and concentration of forces, better army, vicinity of supply basses and so on) fight was pretty much one sided and except for exceptional Red Army dedication and bravery there weren't much 'regular' combat mechanisms that were very damaging to the German war effort. In such circumstances, one of rare trump cards Soviets had in order to really hurt the Germans were attacks on Germany's precious Romanian oil production. As Germany was already operating bellow minimal oil requirements levels, any further disruption of oil supply would directly immobilize its mobile operations, disrupt war production and so on. Any loss would be painfully felt. Though surprised, only three days after invasion on June 25th Red Air Force staged four separate attacks on Ploesti wells, refineries and shipping installations at Constanta. Heaviest of these raids included 37 bombers, of which Germans claimed 17 downed. Installations were slightly damaged, but the very fact that production was impaired was troublesome enough for the Germans who were living hand to mouth and at bare minimum of consumption. On July 13 distillation plant was knocked out for extended period of time,eleven storage tanks and dozen loaded rail tank cars were destroyed. In August Red Air Force bombers hit critical bridge at Cernavoda and ignited the pipeline that it carried. Fact that Germans assigned anti air regiments, fighter and other Lufwaffe units numbering 50 000 men to protection of Romanian oil production speaks for itself about its critical importance.

Only when Crimea, from where Soviet bombers were operating, was invaded did this threat cease. This threat was major factor in wider strategical decision making; in giving Ukraine priority over Moscow, as well as in actually invading Crimea instead of bottling it up, a costly and often criticized venture.