Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)

Valentin Cseh: Allied Air-strikes against MAORT's Facilities in 1944

developed the operational plans on the possibilities of strikes against oil industry facilities in Hungary, and the Allies completed reconnaissance of oil related targets by April 1944. This soon hit home on refineries

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" and oilfields in Hungarv. The British and American forces, however, held out with bombing Hungary' for the time being,

3M because the country was not all that important for them from the tactical aspect, and on the other hand they could hope that our nation proved successful in backing out of the war. The Germans occupied our country on March 19,1944, so anv Hungarian plans till then were also overwritten. Despite the fact that Allied airborne activity already began over Hungary in 1943, initially these were just flyovers; nevertheless the first "bomb-raid" did take place on October 24,1943, when B-l

7 Flying Fortress and B-24

1 iberator heaw bombers living over released their bomb pavload over Western Hungary. Air-raids against Hungary were carried out bv the US 15th Army Air Force, and the Royal Air Force's 205th Bomb Group

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" - which were units of the MASAF

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, subordinated to the MAAF

357 - on the basis of the CBO

358 plan. In addition to this, the US 8th Army Air Force, based in Fngland, also joined Hungary's bombardment in the scope of what was referred to as shuttle bombing.

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1 The 15th Army Air Force was established in Tunis, on October 30, 1943 so as to relieve the 8th Army Air Force, and on account of what was referred to as the "second air from" being opened, from the US 12th AF Bomber Command's tactical bombers. Their tasks included the bombardment of France, Italy (Northern Italy), Germany (Austria, Bohemia, Poland), Hungary, Slovakia, and the Balkans (Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia/Yugoslavia, Greece). MajorGeneral James H. Doolittle

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''" was the 15th Armv Ar Force's organiser and first commander 153 The annual output of' MAORT's oilfields was 809969.63 metric tons in 1944; the MAORT Gasoline Plant in Bázakerettye additionally ran with a capacity of 50000 metric tons/year in 1943. The US estimated Hungarian oil refineries' production to be 7820(H) metric tons in 1944, which was 800000 metric tons based on Hungarian figures from 1943. SRÁGLI 2008 332. ADAMY 1968 118., AFHRA MAAF 217, No. 3185 Almásfüzitő - Vacuum Bl 1 71, MOIM Arch. PS. 3. d. 2. t. '

,4 The Allies reached the political decision concerning the bombing of Hungarv in November 194.3. February 2, 1944 was marked as the date of the first Anglo-American air-strike, but bombing raids only started on April 3 because of bad weather conditions. As a point of interest, the Allies contemplated attacking Budapest in 1942, since their aircraft's operational radius extended to our nation's capital city from Cyprus. PATAKY- R( 1ZSOS-SÁRHIDAI I. 1992 85. ,ss The British Air Force's 205th Bombardment Group was organised in October 1941, at an airfield near the Suez. Canal. It was given the task of carrying out night rime attacks against targets bombed by the Amencans, and to drop mines on the Danube River and the waters of the Balkans. It was comprised of the following air wings: 2nd Wing (SAAF - South African Air Force), 231st Wing (37th and 70th bomber squadrons), 236th Wing (40th and 104th squadrons), 240th Wing (178th and 614th squadrons), 330th Wing (142nd and 150th squadrons), 334th Wing (148th squadron and 1575th commando; these were the British secret service, the SOE's squadrons). The 205th Bombardment Group also had a Polish unit in addition to the South African one, and had some 180-200 Handlev Page Halifaxes, Vickers Wellingtons and B-24D Liberators all in all. http://www. airpower.at/news03/0813_luftkrieg_ostmark/15L

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SAL.htm, MMVL 54., PATAKY-RO/.SOS-SÁR1 IIDAI I. 1992 85., 103-105. Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air F'orce Mediterranean Allied Air Force '* Combined Bomber Offensive - the Casablance directive, code-name Pointblank. The Casablancc conference was held between January 14-26, 1943, under the direction of L'S President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, with the involvement of the Chiefs of Staff of the two nations' armed forces, and military advisors. At the conference, codenamed Trident, an agreement was struck as to coordinating the activities of the L'S and British air forces, and that the operations of the Allied air force would also be extended over Southern F.urope starting from 1943. PATAKY- RO/.SOS-SÁRHIDA1 I. 1992 84. In the scope of diis operation (Operation Franuc loe), the L'S Army Air Force increased the number of its aircraft available for deployment against Central Europe bv using Soviet airfields. The 8th Armv Air Force took off for missions from F.ngland, the 15th Army Air Force from Southern Italy with B-l~s, and landed on Soviet airfields after their bombing raids. On their remrn leg, thev

1 also engaged odier targets before landing at airfields in Italy, from which they returned to their onginal bases. This operation lasted from |une 2, 1944 to October 11, 1944, with 8 missions, but the military venture was terminated on Soviet pressure. MMLV 192. lames 1 larold Doolittle (1896-1993): American air general. I le served at the Army's air units from 1917. After the [apanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was put in charge of the air-strike on Tokyo in 1942. He was the commander of the 15th Army Air Force created in Tunis from November 1, 1943 to January 3, 1944; then became the commander of the US 8th Armv Air Force - which was stationed in England - from January 15, 1944.