During World War II, on this day in 1943, 177 B-24 Liberators took off from Benghazi, Libya for a 2,700 mile round trip to make a sensational strike on the Ploesti oil fields. Without fighter escorts, the mission turned into a disaster. Some damage was done to the Rumanian oil fields but of the 177 Liberators that set out on this low-level raid, 57 were lost, mostly to intense ground fire.