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The Cost of Schweinfurt
Air Force Magazine ^ | 02/01/2010 | By John T. Correll

Posted on 02/15/2010 8:50:07 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld

Had it not been for ball bearings, Schweinfurt might have remained a small town in Bavaria and escaped the notice of history. However, it was there in 1883 that a local mechanic, Friedrich Fischer, invented the machine that made possible mass production of ball bearings. In 1906, his son founded the Kugelfischer firm, which became the cornerstone of the industry.

World War II created a huge demand for ball bearings. The German aviation industry alone used 2.4 million of them a month. Production was concentrated in Schweinfurt, where five plants turned out nearly two-thirds of Germany’s ball bearings and roller bearings. Between 1922 and 1943, the surge in manufacturing tripled the population of Schweinfurt to 50,000. In the summer of 1943, US and British planners for the Combined Bomber Offensive identified the ball bearings industry as a key “bottleneck” target, the destruction of which could clog up war production and potentially shorten the war. The British Air Ministry since 1943 had been trying to persuade the Royal Air Force to bomb Schwein-furt, but Air Marshal Arthur T. “Bomber” Harris, chief of RAF Bomber Command, was adamantly opposed.

(Excerpt) Read more at airforce-magazine.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: aviationhistory; b17; history; schweinfurt; strategicbombing; usaaf; useighthairforce; wwii
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To: fso301

That is not true. The Me-163,He-178 and Me-262 were high enough to reach Allied planes. In fact, the P-51 and Me-262 met in combat.


21 posted on 02/15/2010 10:18:26 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution."-Dr.Wernher Von Braun)
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To: Bringbackthedraft
I am a believer in the “scorched earth” policy
22 posted on 02/15/2010 10:19:51 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution."-Dr.Wernher Von Braun)
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To: imahawk
I always enjoyed talking to vets from WW2 and especially the aircorps types.Sadly most are gone now.

Yes, some great and sometimes tragicomic stories. Most are gone now, but we ain't speken ze Deutch, or however you say it. That thanks to them.
23 posted on 02/15/2010 10:36:25 PM PST by bajabaja (Too ugly to be scanned at the airports.)
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To: sonofstrangelove
Schweinfurt?

Now they're blaming pigs for global warming?

24 posted on 02/15/2010 10:55:41 PM PST by AZLiberty (Yes, Mr. Lennon, I do want a revolution.)
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To: bajabaja

You got that right.


25 posted on 02/15/2010 10:57:02 PM PST by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life is tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I know a gentleman who flew B-29s over Japan and later Korea.


26 posted on 02/15/2010 10:57:42 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution."-Dr.Wernher Von Braun)
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To: sonofstrangelove
That is not true. The Me-163,He-178 and Me-262 were high enough to reach Allied planes. In fact, the P-51 and Me-262 met in combat.

Are you sure you responded to the correct post? None of the planes you mentioned are the JU-87 Stuka's I mentioned.


27 posted on 02/15/2010 11:06:30 PM PST by fso301
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To: sonofstrangelove

Bookmark


28 posted on 02/15/2010 11:17:07 PM PST by tcrlaf (Obama White House=Tammany Hall on the National Mall)
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To: bajabaja
"12 O'clock High" - 1949 movie in Black and White.

A very interesting film on many levels - highly recommend; ball bearing are even highlighted.

Perhaps a better (and earlier) target was Polesti, however.

29 posted on 02/16/2010 1:11:13 AM PST by jamaksin
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To: crazydad

I spent some months outside Stuttgart in a nice little hotel, ristorante and Tanzcafé owned by an Italian. (There ya go—French, Italian, and German rootwords in the same establishment!)

Next door he had an Italian food import business that catered to the public and to restaurants throughout the area. I still have his catalog packed away somewhere.


30 posted on 02/16/2010 2:14:26 AM PST by Erasmus (Buffalo: "I never met an Indian I didn't like, with the possible exception of Deepak Chopra.")
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To: 1st I.D Vet

My brother-in-law was stationed there about ten years after the war. He was a US Army courier who had a route across central Germany, with Schweinfurt in the middle of the route.

He told me about one Army installation, like most, a former Nazi base, he visited on his rounds. One day he looked up onto the hillside near the entrance. He saw a gigantic concrete swastika lying in the dense trees that evidently had been overlooked. They subsequently destroyed it.


31 posted on 02/16/2010 2:22:35 AM PST by Erasmus (Buffalo: "I never met an Indian I didn't like, with the possible exception of Deepak Chopra.")
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To: basil

Thanks for the ping!

Ira C. Eaker is indeed a relative.


32 posted on 02/16/2010 4:33:43 AM PST by Eaker (Where I'm from, "Gang Colors" is Realtree and Mossy Oak. You know what I'm saying hoss. Rule.308.)
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To: sonofstrangelove

Footnote:

In Crossville Tennessee there is a massive bearing distribution center. The bearings from Schweinfurt are distributed all over the western hemisphere from the Crossville center.

I asked a young man there if he had ever seen “Twelve O’clock High” and the story of the bombing of Schweinfurt. He had not and was amazed that he was a major player in the distribution of bearings that had such a high destruction priority 50 years ago.


33 posted on 02/16/2010 4:38:32 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Tax the poor. Taxes will give them a stake in society)
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To: jamaksin

One of my all-time favorite films. It is a great study in leadership of men.


34 posted on 02/16/2010 5:18:22 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Eaker

I thought that might be the case. I had an uncle who was a bombardier on the B17 and he was involved in the bombing of Schweinfurt. He used to come by our house once in a while when we were kids and tell stories of his WW II bombing raids———


35 posted on 02/16/2010 6:26:06 AM PST by basil (It's time to rid the country of "Gun Free Zones" aka "Killing Fields")
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Thank you - agreed, a truly great film. I use it in several of my OB classes.

For example, the scene at the gate - for those who have never "seen" change ..., primacy of "the Group", ..., etc.

36 posted on 02/16/2010 9:37:45 AM PST by jamaksin
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To: Erasmus

Yea. Actually both of the barracks locations ( several miles apart) were ex-nazi housing areas for troops. Many of them had swastikas stamped out or broken apart.

Pretty eerie.


37 posted on 02/17/2010 10:14:42 PM PST by 1st I.D Vet
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To: crazydad

I was stationed in Schweinfurt from the early to mid 80’s and I will always remember an Italian restaurant near the barracks. The owner was an old Italian lady. The best Italian food I’ve ever eaten. Her name was Teresa. I wonder if is same lady you are referring to and if her children kept the Ristorante!


38 posted on 06/08/2010 7:44:06 AM PDT by Catesa
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To: Ron Jeremy
Didn’t the whole bottleneck theory largely turn out to be BS? That is, that what appear to be obvious bottlnecks tend to have very quick workarounds?

Not entirely ... There was, rather, a problem with follow-up (or lack thereof). Eighth Air Force bombed the factories several times by day. Bomber Command (Harris) refused to carry out immediate follow-up raids on the same factories. The factories were quite robust in structure. The first wave of bombing was sufficient to damage the buildings and disrupt production, but not to destroy the machinery inside. A follow up raid would likely have destroyed, the machinery. Harris, however, thought killing Germans was more important than winning the war and preferred to bomb population centers.

39 posted on 06/08/2010 7:50:56 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: Bringbackthedraft

Waah, justice for Warsaw and Rotterdam.


40 posted on 06/08/2010 7:54:03 AM PDT by dfwgator
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