At dawn on August 1, 1943, 179 B-24 Liberators thundered away from bases in North Africa, headed for a sacred target across the Mediterranean. It was a daylight bombing of the oil refineries in Ploiești, Romania - one of the most daring raids of the war. The raid was a total disaster. The oil refineries, though badly hit, were still in operation, and still producing oil when Russian Armies rolled over them in August 1944.