Re: Bombers/raiders

----- Original Message -----
From: "Imre A. Szabo" <ias@sprintmail.com>

> Several years ago I heard a theory that the USAF could have had a much
more
> dramatic effect in WWII if they had concentrated soley on electricity
power
> planets, instead of factories.  In short, the theory said it was a
waste
to
> bomb factories, because of the large number of targets.  There were
> comparatively few electricty plants, therefore each power plant taken
out
> could render several factories inoperative.

Most factories could be put back to work or replaced fairly quickly.
Plus
there was a lot of redundancy, as German economy was not on a serious
war
footing from early in the war. Factories continued to produce stuff for
private consumption, and many military items were produced to
unneccesarily
high standards. Optimizing production helped to offset capacity losses
to a
large extent

The best results for the allies came when they switched from attacking
factories to attacking the tranport network and energy production,
especially oil facilities. These really crippled the German economy

> The big question is, if the USAF had, could the Germans have comeup
with
an
> alternative means of providing electric power to the factories? 
Anyone
out
> there now a lot more about electric power generation than me?

Diesel generators, for example.

> > the author) and such things as the USAFs post war strategic review
of
the
> > air war over germany show that even with production focused on aa
guns,
> > fighters etc, Germany was still producing more tanks and artillery
at
the
> > end of the war than it was at the start.

However, the peak of German production was in mid.1944. From autumn on,
it
collapsed quite dramatically.

Greetings
Karl Heinz