Air Force the Official Service Journal - Air Force Historical Studies ...

.....
-; ...
The results of two years' steady pounding by our British-based heavies are
graphically revealed in this eyewitness report from precision target areas in France
TIlES, presses and drilling machines, most of them broken
[
and
both
dnsty
sides
with disuse, stood in crowded ranks
of the Iactorv. Overhead the saw-tooth
along
roof
was a dangling skeleton of :,teel. But across the reaches of
cement floor not a bomb crater could be seen,
Thc stocky Frenchman in black bnsiness suit and beret
waved to\var~1 the \\Teekage,
"Your bombs were well fuvccl." he said. "One hundred
and th irtv br.m b, struck th is bu ild ing. livc were duds. The
rcst went tiJrongh one smhec, the roof, then exploded beforc
hitting the floor. ]),un:lge to am machines was enormous.
It \\:\S work \\'cll clone."
This \V:IS tl.c story cvcrvwlicrc. Frenchmen who had seen
8th Air Forc« bon'lbarch;lent of target, in the Paris and
Rheims nrcax made \arying connucuts. An cngincer spoke
of bomb hu,ing, A former French airman pra isccl thc "impeccable"
form.it ions. Other men admired the cour.u;c of
those crews wh o bad weathered the hottest flak in Emope.
Bnt the snm of their statemcnts came to one thing-\\'()rk
well done. En'n German officers, standing not only in the
ruins of airfields, rail yards, f.rctorics and oil plants but in the
ruins of their own military ambition, had charactcrizcd
American bomb.ndmcut as a;l A-I job.
A description of rcsults achieved in 8th Air Force attacks
upon industrial Fr.mcc-i-us found through ground inspection
of targets and interviews with French businessmen shortly
after the occupation-s--rcqnircs, first, a review of the problem
involved. lor nowhere in the world has precision bombing
been put to a more Se\'CIT test.
French factorics operated by or for the J\'al.is gcner'llly
were much smaller in area than those of the Reich itself, and
the Germans had gonc to extr:l':agant
lengths to fend off
U. S. air PO\\'CI'. Pari, \\'as so
stoutlv armored with antiaircraft
- and fleets of fighter
planes that bombers were
forced up to 2 :;.000 feet or
more. Key plants \\'CTe protected
hv fircwalls and other
structures.
~ lorcovcr, these factories
were situated in thickly popul.itcd
sections among people
who at heart were fricudlv to
the Allied c.m«: or seel:ctlv
active in it. Alw.iv», th is wus
a vital consideration. The Sth
Air Force sent oulv picked
crews .urd expert born ba I'dicrs
on Paris missions, never
used incendiaries on f.rctorics
(\I'h ich norma llv cause nlJ to
half the damage in a bombing
attack), and rarely attacked
through cloud cover.
Whatever the difficulties, however, destruct ion of French
industry was essential. for it figured largely in the pl.ms of
the German war machine. The success of the mission may
NOVEMBER, 1944
By MAJ. CHARLES D. FRAZER
AIR FORCE Overseas Staff
be seen in a few tvpical t,ugcts-for example, the CAM
ball and roller be'lring plant.
This conecrn-thc Compagnie d'Application Mccaniqucs
-\\',IS a subsicliary of the Swedish SKF organil.ation. Its two
plants at Bois Colombe and I\TY were capable in pre-war
times of producing -+0,000 bearings per day. The wartime
production figure rangcd from I :;,000 to 2:;,000 daily. Two
thousand workers were employed.
From a strategic st.mdpoiut this may have been the most
important induvtri.i] tnget in Fr.mcc, ~fanubctme of bearings
requires higldy skilled labor and it is one industry the
Ccrm.uis could not dcccutr.ilizc. And, while Germany produccd
7:; percent of bel' owu bearings at Schwciufurt, Erkner
and elsewhere, C:\\ [ \\',\S counted on for 10 to I:; percent of
the total req nircnuu h. C.\" [ m.iclc tapered roller bearings,
a product so urgcnt that the CernLlIlS, like a vagrant picking
up butts in the street, were s;J1vaging them from all crashed
All icd aircraft.
'I'm) attacks were made hy the Sth Air Force upon CAl\l's
Bois Colombe plant: Oil September 1:;, 19-11, wit]: 78 Forts
dropping 229 tons of I II;:, and Oil December 31, 19-13, with
:;7 I:orts dropping I G-I tons. On that Ncv« Year E\'e other
bombers paid a call Oil the Ivry plant, too. l n all cases 500pound
bombs were used against single-story, steel and concrete
huildings.
The first attack all Bois Colombe destroyed 30 percent of
the surface structures and 20 percent of the machines. Practically
all roofs fell in, Orv.ir Custaflson, the Swedish manager
\vho ran the plants under Ccrmun xupcrviviou, called
this a very gooc! result. Since 30 operations arc needed to
make a herring, this pcrccut.u;c of destruct ion put the plant
out completely for two months. 1':\'('n after work was resumed
production never again got above 12,000 hearings per
day.
After the second attack, Bois Colom he was down for another
two months and the lvrv plant \\'as clown for nearly
three. At Ivrv bombs dc.trovcd rnauv fom-spindle automatic
machines which the Conu.ms could neither repair nor replace.
These CA-;\I factories were vcrv small pinpoint targets.
Apparcntlv the Ct.nu.ms understood that if A:\lo' bombers
could hit the plants twice they could do it ;lg:lin, so in Mnv
of this year J'\,u,i officials in charge of C.\\ [ muck: a spectacular
mO\T. They undertook to tr.msfcr all usable machines
from Bois Colombe and Ivrv into a vast grotto at
Tavcruv, just outside Paris, Strenuons labor W,IS involved
and the work took weeks. Cold and d.uup. the grotto was
whollv unsuited to the mnuufactnrc of hearings, and to 0\'('1'comcth
is obstacle the Cenn,\ns instalkdheatinf'; equipment.
Thcv also ran electric powcr and oil lines into the caves and
built tunnels for a r.ulroad spm, Fvcutu.rllv this f.mtustic
fuctorv. occupvins; 2 :;0,000 square feet of cavcrn -10 to 80
yards below ground. was put into operation; but it was then
too late-Julv, 19-14. Production of a sort was maintained
for one mouth. then ceased altogether on Augnst 12.
Quite a different type of plant in the Bois Colombe
vicinitv \\'as that of IIispano Suiza. Here Ccnuan-coutrollcd
workers repaired airplane and marine engines. repaired f\ lE-
109 aircraft, and manufactured components for Daimler
7