US Strategic Bombing Survey
US wartime study, set up in November 1944, of the effects of Allied strategic bombing.
The US Strategic Bombing Survey, set up on 3 November 1944, found that German synthetic aviation fuel output fell from 175,000 tons to 5,000 tons between April and September 1944. Ukraine claimed on 4 October 2026 to have disabled 51% of Russian refining.
Last refreshed: 12 October 2026
Do Ukraine's refinery strikes repeat the lesson of the 1944 oil campaign?
Timeline for US Strategic Bombing Survey
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Russia-Ukraine War 2026Background
The US Strategic Bombing Survey was set up by the Secretary of War on 3 November 1944, under a directive from President Franklin Roosevelt, to measure what Allied strategic bombing had achieved. Franklin D'Olier chaired it, with Henry Alexander as vice-chairman. Its directors included George W. Ball, John Kenneth Galbraith and Paul H. Nitze. Its Summary Report on the European war is dated 30 September 1945.
Its best-known oil finding concerned Germany's synthetic fuel plants, where output of aviation gasoline fell from 175,000 tons in April 1944 to 30,000 tons in July and 5,000 tons in September.
The survey's lesson is about repetition: plants struck again and again could not be repaired fast enough to recover. That is the standard against which Ukraine's campaign on Russian refineries is read. Kyiv's drones have returned to plants such as Omsk, and its Defence Ministry claimed on 4 October 2026 that 51% of Russian refining capacity was out of action.