Ploiești (pop. 180,540) is the center of the Romanian oil industry. The city lies in a large oil-producing region of south-central Romania. Ploiești has plants that manufacture oil-mining equipment, refine oil, and produce chemicals from petroleum. Pipelines and railroads link the city with Constanta on the Black Sea. Ploiești is also a textile-manufacturing center.
During World War II (1939-1945), Romania sided with Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers. Ploiești’s oil industry thus became an important target for Allied bombers (airplanes used to drop explosives). In August 1943, a massive raid by United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators badly damaged Ploiești’s refineries. Axis air defenses, however, destroyed numerous B-24’s, and Ploiești’s oil industry soon recovered.
