Soviet Air Raids on Ploesti and Constanta in Early July 1941

[Kim Sung]

Although I opened a similar thread last week, I decided to a separate thread on this.

Soviet aircrafts bombed Ploesti oil field and Constanţa in early July 1941 just after the beginning of the operation Barbarossa. As soon as Romanian troops invaded the Soviet Union, how was it possible for Soviet aircrafts to attack Romanian infrastructure? Were these air raids successful? Any details on this unknown air operations will be appreciated.

[TISO]

This operations aren't exactly unknown.
Check here:
Romanian armed forces in WWII
Romanian Military History forum
Topic from the forum:
SOVIET BOMBERS OVER CONSTANZA - at least they started on topic

[Victor]

The first raid was on 9 July 1941, without any effects. On 13 July, 6 bombers attacked the refineries around Ploiesti and managed to hit the reservoirs of the Unirea refinery. 9,000 tons of oil burnt and the fires were extinguished five days later. Four bombers were shot down. Until 18 August 1941, another 8 raids were carried out by VVS bombers over Ploiesti (in total 53 aircraft were sighted from the ground)

[Kim Sung]

What about air raid on Constanţa?

[Victor]

I forgot about Constanta and was editing my initial post whiel you posted the reply.

As for Constanta, there were many raids in the first days, carried out mainly against the port area, during nighttime. There were no major effects. I can make a list if you are interested. More successful were the Zveno raids in Dobruja.

[Kim Sung]

There were no major effects. I can make a list if you are interested.

A list please!

[Victor]

The first raid was carried out by 4 bombers of 40 BAP during the night of 22/23 June 1941. Several bombs fell outside the harbor and 8 to the SW of the city.

Early in the morning of 23, there were several waves of bombers flying at over 4,000 m, where the ships' light AA had little effect. Several bombs fell on the city, but some hit the harbor area. One damaged the mine storehouse and destroyed a German AA section, killing 30 people. Another two storehouses burned down. Several of the ships were hit by splinters and there were 3 wounded on the NMS Stihi gunboat, 2 on the NMS Regina Maria destroyer and 3 on the NMS Murgescu mine-laying ship. One bomber was shot down and crashed on the Calarasi Street. Around noon there was another raid, but the bombs fell into the sea. After this, the ships went out of teh harbor and took positions by the mine fileds. 40 BAP and 2 MTAP made 98 soirties that day. 12 bombers were claimed shot down by the Axis AAA and fighters.

The bombing continued on 24 and 25 June, but the fighter cover had been increased. The bombers attacked the Mamaia airfield and destroyed one aircraft on the ground. The fighters had a field day against the formations of unescorted VVS-ChF bombers, as it happened all over the Eastern Front in teh first days of Barbarossa. NMS Murgescu, the Romanian ship with the best AAA, also claimed two shot down (of which one probable) on 24 and retrieved the crew of one of them from the sea. On 25 it claimed three bombers and on 26 another one. The R-class destroyers also claimed each one bomber shot down. After 26, when the ChF raid on Constanta resulted with the loss of the Moskva, the air raids stopped.

They will be continued with more success by the I-16 carrying TB-3s.

[Pica]

Is anyone who knows the exact location where Destroyer "MOSKVA" sunk? I mean by GPS the LATITUDE and LONGITUDE!!!

[Mori]

Undigging this very old topic.

Are there any sources (book, articles, other) about the summer 1941 raids by the Soviet air force against the oil installations in Rumania?

Thanks.

[Westphalia1812]

Undigging this very old topic.

Are there any sources (book, articles, other) about the summer 1941 raids by the Soviet air force against the oil installations in Rumania?

Thanks.

You could try Barbarossa - The Air Battle: June - Decrmber 1941 by Christer Bergström. Its on Amazon and in 'alternative' libraries if you know what I mean...

[Mori]

Thanks, will check that, I know where to look.

Also found a reference in the footnotes of the German wikipedia page, but it's in Romanian and does not seem available for download wherever I look: Eugen Stănescu, Gavriil Preda, Iulia Stănescu: Petrol și bombe la Ploiești. Editura Imprimes, Ploiești 1994

[Mori]

Undigging this very old topic.

Are there any sources (book, articles, other) about the summer 1941 raids by the Soviet air force against the oil installations in Rumania?

Thanks.

You could try Barbarossa - The Air Battle: June - Decrmber 1941 by Christer Bergström. Its on Amazon and in 'alternative' libraries if you know what I mean...

Has a couple of pages on the topic (Thanks!). Some details on the raids, much less so on damage, but it's pretty good already.

[Westphalia1812]

Undigging this very old topic.

Are there any sources (book, articles, other) about the summer 1941 raids by the Soviet air force against the oil installations in Rumania?

Thanks.

You could try Barbarossa - The Air Battle: June - Decrmber 1941 by Christer Bergström. Its on Amazon and in 'alternative' libraries if you know what I mean...

Has a couple of pages on the topic (Thanks!). Some details on the raids, much less so on damage, but it's pretty good already.

Yea, Bergström is great when it comes to air war, not so much on ground Ops tho