One Mission to Ploesti

Book excerpt: Lost among the great stories of World War II was the escape and rescue of hundreds of Allied airmen shot down over German-occupied Yugoslavia. Their target had been the vital Axis oil fields at Ploesti, Romania. Robert P. Moore and his B-17 crewmates were among the first wave of high altitude bombing raids that intensified in April, 1944. Enemy flak and engine trouble brought down their aircraft short of the target. It was Moore’s first mission, in an unfamiliar aircraft, with a crew he had met only moments before take-off. He bailed out into a completely unknown and rugged country, and was confronted by local militia carrying axes and firearms. The men were part of a larger nationalist army—Chetniks. Fiercely anti-communist, the Chetniks desperately wanted Allied help. The Chetniks guided Moore and hundreds of other airmen, traveling in rugged mountains to get them to a safe zone for rescue. Moore’s escape and rescue is here recounted in his own words. Moore and his airmen bailed out into a country that was at war with itself as well as the Germans. The Chetniks under the leadership of Gen. Draja Mihailovich were engaged not only in a war with the Nazi occupiers, they were also at odds with an army of their fellow countrymen, called Partisans, under the leadership of communist-leaning Josip Tito. Mihailovich and his Chetniks, in part to show solidarity with the Allies, guided downed American airmen to a secret airstrip in the mountains south of Belgrade. Mihailovich and American intelligence cooperated in Operation Halyard, the secret mission to rescue almost 500 airman and return them to their base. Following the war, many of the surviving airmen shared their story with family and friends. A few wrote about their adventure, and a few of those stories made it into print. Moore’s hometown newspaper ran a lengthy piece shortly after his return. Only now has Moore put together the complete experience, as a way to honor his wartime crewmen.