Knockout Blow? The Army Air Force's Operations Against Ploesti and Balikpapan

<p>This study analyzes the us army air force's Ploesti and Balikpapan oil refinery bombing operations in WWII. The author determines that these operations highlight organizational and leadership differences that have implications for today. The writer first recounts the 1943 low-level raid against ploesti. The conclusion is that the strategic and tactical concepts for this first raid were flawed leading to heavy losses without any appreciable benefit. The author then describes the us strategic air force's sustained operations against Ploesti during 1944. This examination shows that the Americans linked these attacks with a more realistic strategy and thus contributed significantly to allied war aims. However slow tactical change characterized the 1944 operations leading to heavy cumulative losses in the pursuit of strategic effects. The author next turns to the surprisingly parallel balikpapan operation in the pacific. The writer initially recounts the first two large-scale bombing operations during September and October 1944. The conclusion is that these initial operations like the first Ploesti attack contained major strategic and tactical flaws.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>