MEDITERRANEAN THEATRE

Evening Star, Issue 25170, 9 May 1944, Page 5

MEDITERRANEAN THEATRE

200,000 TONS OF BOMBS DROPPED (Rec. 11 a.m.) RUGBY, May 8. The productive capacity of the Ploesti oil refining system has been reduced to less than 2o iper cent, of tho normal output as the result of attacks by Allied bombers, states a Naples correspondent. Lieutenant-general Ira Eater, commander-in-chief Allied_ air operations'in the Mediterranean, in a congratulatory message to Majorgeneral Nathan Twining, commander of the United States Fifteenth Air Force, states that since the' landings m North Africa to May 5 more than 200,000 tons of bombs have been dropped in the Mediterranean theatre. General Eakor added that the bombing in the Balkans had a significant effect. The Ploesti refineries, with a capacity of over 9,500,000 tons annually, had 'been supplying 30 per cent, of Germany's need's, and their destruction would have an immediate adverse effect on the German war effort. In the last six weeks, said General Eater, over 14.000 tons of bombs had been dropped, and, in addition to the destruction of oil refineries, great damage hadheen done to vital enemy transport and industrial installations.