Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/05/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 08:33 AM 5/30/05 +0200, Douglas Sharp wrote: My comments are interspersed ultra: >I heard the IIIc story as part of the "Mosquito" mythology,high speed,unarmed >night flights to neutral Sweden to pick up ball-bearings and precision >components for the British war effort. Any truth in this? COMMENT: The British ran a civilian air service to Sweden during the War. This run was actually conducted by RAF personnel to my fairly certain knowledge. Most of the runs were by de Havilland Mosquitos but even Avro Ansons were used on occasion. >The allied airforces were in fact so "effective" at the bombing of German >industry, railway and canal transportation that Speer (Reichsr?stungsminister) >even managed to increase strategic (Kriegswichtig) production figures by >40% >between 1943 and the end of hostilities. COMMENT: We might be speaking apples and oranges here. Speer's increase in the productivity of the Reich in 1943 and 1944 came from a national dedication to a war standard, something adopted by the UK in 1940 and by the US in 1`941 but, for reasons dealing with Hitler's more-than-odd psyche, only possible in the Third Reich after constant pressure for years by Goebbels and Speer. Speer did comment in the first volume of his memoirs that the Second World War would have ended sooner had the air staffs of the RAF and USSAF not been as stupid as were those of the Luftwaffe. However, in the end, strategic air power was not going to win the Second World War in either theater: victory consisted of ground-pounders going in and taking charge. >In the case of the railways most of the mainline links from north to south and >east to west were still operating even in early 1945. COMMENT: A major lesson from the Second World War was that, contra Ira Eaker, Spaatz, and "Bomber" Harris, conventional bombing can do almost nothing to disarray rail traffic other than knocking out bridges. Bombing rail yards destroys box cars and engines and the like but has little impact on the infrastructure. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir! NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505