00:00In the British Isles, there are the Allied Air Forces.
00:03On the European continent, we have Regensburg,
00:07Marienburg, Bremen, Ossesleben,
00:10Warnemünde, and Kassel.
00:14These are the major German fighter assembly plants,
00:17and as such, are actually the center
00:19of Germany's industrial defense line.
00:21However, these are only the places
00:23where the aircraft is assembled
00:25into the finished fighting machine.
00:27Component parts for German fighters
00:29are made at Anklam,
00:31the Weserflugzeugbau works at Bremen,
00:34the great Hederheim propeller works near Frankfurt,
00:38the aircraft tire factory at Hanover,
00:40the CAM ball-bearing plant at Paris,
00:44and the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt.
00:47Obviously, an assembly plant can't operate
00:50if other plants aren't building the parts
00:52from which the enemy planes will be assembled.
00:56Hulse produced 29%
00:58of all German synthetic rubber production,
01:00and is, in fact, responsible for 18%
01:03of her entire supply of rubber, natural or synthetic.
01:07At Boschum, there's a great steel plant
01:10producing high-grade aviation steel.
01:12Aroya, up in Norway,
01:14is a great producer of aluminum and magnesium,
01:18metals which figure importantly in aircraft production.
01:21At Hamm, there are great railroad marshalling yards,
01:25having a capacity of 10,000 freight cars a day.
01:28Much of the tonnage handled here
01:30is closely connected with the manufacture,
01:33assembly, maintenance, and repair of enemy aircraft.
01:36And so it is all over Germany and occupied Europe.
01:40Everywhere there are plants and installations
01:43that contribute directly or indirectly
01:45to the making of German aircraft,
01:47industrial bastions which must first be ripped apart
01:51before the enemy's armies can be destroyed.
01:54The smashing blows by the Allied air forces
01:56at Hulse, Aroya, Regensburg, Schweinfurt,
02:01Hanover, and Frankfurt have had the result
02:03of piercing the German industrial line
02:05to the extent of 37.5%
02:08of estimated single-engine fighter production
02:11in September of 1943.
02:14If this rate of drop continues,
02:16there can be only one result,
02:18the eventual disappearance of the Luftwaffe
02:21as a defensive force.
02:23But these attacks have had other far-reaching effects.
02:27For instance, in January of 1943,
02:30just when the 8th Bomber Command
02:32had started daylight attacks against Germany proper,
02:3542% of the German fighter strength
02:38was concentrated in Western Europe,
02:4033% of it in Russia,
02:42and 25% in the Mediterranean area.
02:47After 10 months of American bombers
02:49appearing by day over Germany,
02:51the figures line up more like this.
02:54On the Russian front, 19%.
02:57In the Mediterranean area, 12%.
03:00And in Western Europe, 69%.
03:03Germany thought it was urgent enough
03:05to withdraw fighters from two important theaters,
03:08all in a vain attempt to save their crumbling industry
03:11from the grim, destructive blows
03:13of the British-American bomber offensive.
03:16That is why the Battle of Germany is being fought.
03:19Now we come to the problem,
03:22how are the targets selected?
03:23And what enormous effort is necessary
03:25for the 10 or 15 minutes that our air task forces
03:29will be over any given target?
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