Fortress Ploesti: The Campaign to Destroy Hitler's Oil

While Fortress Ploesti is the narrative history of the entire air campaign to deny the Ploesti oil complex to the Axis powers, it is also a launching point for the author's inquiries into many aspects of the American strategic bombing effort in World War II. It delivers across the board.

Stout, who served as a Marine F/A-18 pilot in the First Gulf War, asks questions about aviation combat history and technique that any modern combat pilot would be dying to ask. He carries the ball far beyond the goal post set by all other Ploesti historians. He has gone out of his way to describe the defenses throughout the campaign, and he brings in the voices of Ploesti's defenders to complement the tales of Allied airmen who brought Ploesti to ruin. He describes the role of the bombers, that of the fighters, the ant-aircraft defenses, even the technique of obscuring the Ploesti complex with smoke.

In the end, Stout's narrative describes the entire Ploesti effort for the very first time in print, and, by proxy, guides the reader through the intricacies of the entire Allied strategic bombing campaign in Europe, and all the weapons and techniques the Axis powers used to parry it. His lucid presentation of complex issues at the tactical and strategic levels is impressive.

Jay Stout's previous books include Hornets Over Kuwait, his Gulf War memoir and, as co-author, The First Hellcat Ace.

This a must read for WW II buffs, especially for those air crew members of the past and for todays "fly boys" that have a need to understand their heritage. Jay Stout has covered the complete Ploesti Story. I strongly recommend Fortress Ploesti.


The Entire Ploesti Campaign, Told Well!   November 20, 2003
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Having read the advance review copy, I am pleased to record my impressions of this title.

First, let me say that there is a deluge of WWII books coming out these days. Unfortunately, most rehash often-told stories of the war. Fortress Ploesti is not that kind of book. It breaks new ground entirely, and that fact alone makes it a worthwhile addition to the literature on the subject.

The author, himself a combat pilot veteran (Iraq) has long been fascinated with the massive and well-known single bombing expedition of August 1943 against Ploesti. This book, however, includes that mission but also covers in depth all those missions that followed in 1944, a massive strategic campaign of more than twenty missions that had a significant (and yet ironically overlooked) effect on the course of the war.

The author's style is very conversational--easy to read, enjoyable, entertaining, and very enlightening. Included are interviews and recollections of the pilots who participated, including Third Reich pilots, which provides an entirely new perspective on this phase of the war. Stout's experience as a fighter pilot helps describe what these men recalled and experienced. There are also two galleries of photographs, many previously unpublished, but they were not included in my copy of the advance galley.

If you enjoy World War II books in general, and aviation books in particular, you should add this book to your library. You will not be disappointed. Highly recommended.