The Forgotten Fifteenth
By Barrett Tillman
"The goal was to take advantage of good weather and proximity to the Romanian oil fields. Fifteenth Air Force found the going tougher than expected.
The AAF's Fifteenth Air Force was a war baby, born in Italy after a brief gestation and as the result of induced labor. It had a short life—just 22 months. It lived in the shadow of its older and much bigger brother and strategic partner, the England-based Eighth Air Force.
A Fifteenth Air Force B-24 slogs though mud and water, lumbering toward the runway and a takeoff position at an airdrome in Italy. Bad weather plagued the Fifteenth even in Italy, normally sunny and clear.
During the war, the public heard much about "The Mighty Eighth" and little of "The Forgotten Fifteenth." Veterans of the Italian campaign have an explanation of sorts: "If you were a war correspondent, would you rather sip scotch in a London hotel or swig vino in a tent at Foggia?"
At its peak, the Fifteenth was about half the size of the Eighth. It had 21 bomb groups, compared to 41 in the Eighth. The Fifteenth had seven fighter groups; the Eighth had 15. Americans have heard much about the Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group, a famous part of the Fifteenth, but almost nothing of the other bomber, fighter, and reconnaissance groups.
Even so, the Fifteenth did at least its part in the war, consistently doing more than expected, taking the air war to the Axis factories and refineries beyond the reach of Britain-based aircraft. Most importantly, the pilots of the Fifteenth in the spring and summer of 1944 turned off the Wehrmacht's Balkan oil taps, wrecking the Ploesti refinery complex in Romania with strategic effects felt throughout the theater"
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