WW2, German Factories In France

[Cheerful Charlie]

Interesting video. Germany conquered, France, a major industrial
power but failed to use that power to their advantage due to Nazi
stupidity and French resistance.

 

[steve_bank]

As Hitler wrote in Mein Kemph the idea was to depopulate Europe and part of what was then the Soviet Union for German population expansion.

The original Volkswagen aka People's Car was intended to provide cheap trasportaion on an imained highway system in the new empire.

Germans used European civilians as slave labor.

Contrary to popular history the Nazi regime was really not well organized. Albert Speer ws the Minster Of Production.

Some French collaborated for profit.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

The French factories were taken over. Sabotage became common. Peugot was forced to make military trucks. Their dipsticks were mistamped. They indicated propery oil levels, but in reality were low. Peugot military trumps had short engine lives.

 

[bilby]

I seem to recall a story that French railway workers (the 'Résistance Fer') would replace the washers behind the axle grease points of rolling stock with coins, so that the axles wouldn't get any grease, leading to seizing of the bearings.

This was requested by Britain's SOE, as part of a coordinated campaign against ball bearings, which had been identified as a weak point in Germany's industrial supply chain. The RAF and USAAF also had ball-bearing factories as high priority targets.

Without bearings, no logistics chain works, and nothing with an engine can be made to work; No planes, tanks, ships, etc...

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

In France, Germany commandeered French ball bearing factories. The French sometimes assembled bearings minus 1 ball. Resulting in rapid failure.

 

[steve_bank]

Ball bearings were essential to war production.

The infmous bombing of Shwienfurt was costly.

Second Schweinfurt raid - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The second Schweinfurt raid,[10] also called Black Thursday, was a World War II air battle that took place on 14 October 1943, over Nazi Germany between forces of the United States 8th Air Force and German Luftwaffe fighter arm (Jagdwaffe). The American bombers conducted a strategic bombing raid on ball bearing factories to reduce production of these vital parts for all manner of war machines. This was the second attack on the factories at Schweinfurt. American wartime intelligence claimed the first Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission in August had reduced bearing production by 34 percent but had cost many bombers. A planned follow-up raid had to be postponed to rebuild American forces.

 

[Tigers!]

Considering the blockade the Allies imposed upon wartime Europe surely the French factories (or Dutch, Czech etc.) would have had to rely upon what resources were within the German lines. They could not just import what they needed. Without the necessary supplies the best factories can do nothing. Since Germany did not have enough fro itself then those factories would not have been as useful as expected.

 

[steve_bank]

Hitler's fatal blunder was that from the start Germany was not prepared for long term full scale war.

They did not have the population or the production resources. There was no way they could overcome the economic capacity of the USA and Canada.

When Gernay invaded Poland a percentge of their transport were horse drawn. Germany never had the air and ground transport the Allies had. The American 2 1/2 ton truck was mass produced.

 

[bilby]

When Gernay invaded Poland a percentge of their transport were horse drawn.

Most German Army road logistics was still horse drawn at the end of the war. Motorised trucks were the exception, not the rule throughout the war, largely because fuel was scarce in the Third Reich, but grass was abundant.

Likewise, factories that could have built trucks were needed to build tanks and planes.

I read an eyewitness account by a German Private who saw the D-Day landings, in which he remarks at his surprise that the Americans hadn't brought any horses with them.