Books on Axis oil situation in Europe

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'Clock High!:

Tom Davis
P-47 Broke Back of Luftwaffe?
Mon Dec 31 18:53:14 2001


I have a friend who is adament that the P-47 broke the back of the Luftwaffe before the P-51 entered the fray. He argues with much passion that the Luftwaffe was broken by the Thunderbolt in both aircraft and pilot losses, including "experten" pilots. I personaly have my doubts, but would like to know if others agree, and if there is factual data to back up my friend's position.

Tom

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Radiomonitor
P47 and P51
Mon Dec 31 22:37:30 2001


01.12.31-2230z-Neither the P47 nor the P51 broke the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe was broken by the Russian Red Army, when they conquered the Rumanian Oil Refineries, which were the main source of aviation gasoline to the German Luftwaffe. It was lack of fuel which forced the Luftwaffe commanders to change of tactics and abolition of certain defence plans. - Thunderbolts and Lightnings were a hazard to the German rolling road traffic and also hampered German military airfields. The Mustangs on accompanying the American bombers were though propositions to the German fighters, but even the Mustangs could be beaten by the latest German fighter designs - the German Me262 burning kerosine instead of highly refined aviation gas - vy 73 - KAL +

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Juha
LW's fuel situation
Tue Jan 1 10:26:28 2002


Hello Radiomonitor
the Red Army took Ploesti 30th August 1944. At that time the LW was already lost the control of air over m0st of the Europe. And anyway if my memory serves me right most of aviation fuel used by the LW was produced by the synthetic fuel plants in Germany and the LW fuel stocks were at its peak in spring 1944. They began diminish rapidly during the summer or late summer 44 bacause the heavy western allied airattacks on oil targets and also because of the loss of Rumanian and some Hungarian oil wells to the Red Army. But at that time the LW was already a rather spent force. One would rather say that the LW lost its fuel supplies because it had lost its ability to protect them. But this is an oversimplification. These are complicated questions.

Best Regards
Juha

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Radiomonitor
Fuel
Tue Jan 1 12:12:34 2002


02.01.01-1157z-The German synthetic fuel production - from brown coal to raw oil - Hydrierwerke - never reached 5 percent of the German total production/import - And in 1944 from May to November the 8th Air Force flew 21 attacks on these fuel plants and reserve dumps in Germany, practically putting domestic oil production out of business, as well as reducing reserves considerably - The continuous flow of Rumanian oil products was - until the war situation changed it - 45 percent of the German imports and the life blood for the Luftwaffe requirements of highly refined aviation gas - The early foresight of limited aviation gas forced the Luftwaffe high command to change their war plans, both strategically which had effects on availability of trained personnel, hardware, supplies (Nachschub), and tactically, concerning directly the fighting units. - And shall we go farther back to the reason of the poor developement of the German war plans - that was the fatal decision of Adolf Hitler to declare war on USA in December 1941, thereby challenging the US economical and industrial potential at an early point of the war. - That decision could easily have been postponed to a later date, when the eastern enemy had been fully dominated. - But don't let us look too much back on that. - vy 73 - KAL (former Nah-Aufklärer-Gruppe 3 - NAG3)+

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Juha
German aviation gasoline situation
Tue Jan 1 17:15:06 2002


Hello Radiomonotor
I don't know your sources, but according to "The Strategic Air War Against Germany 1939-1945. Report of the British Bombing Survey Unit". Frank Cass (1998) Figure No. 50 'Germany's Sources of Aviation Gasoline 1940-1945' only a very small portion of aviation gasoline was imported or distilled from crude oil up to August 1944. Up to that time around 90% of aviation gasoline was prodused by Hydrogenation. And more generally from Table 47 'Sources of German Oli Supply' on page 144 shows that from 1940 (incl.) to 1943 (incl.) the synthetic production was clearly bigger, indeed in years 1942 and 43 more than double, than the amount imported.

Best Regards
Juha

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Radiomonitor
Fuel Imports
Tue Jan 1 20:13:51 2002


02.01.01-2004z--Year 1942 -- About 35-40 percent of German oil consumption came from Rumania, principal supplier Refineries Ploesti -- Operation "Soapsuds": In the night between 11 and 12 June 1942 13 Liberators took-off from Fayid, Egypt, for a raid against Ploesti. Due to clouds over the target no severe damage was done. After the attack 7 Liberators diverted to Irak, 2 Liberators reached Syria and the remaining 4 Liberators landed in Turkey. The Liberators were scheduled with insufficient fuel for the return trip to Egypt.
--Year 1943 -- Now about 40-45 percent of German oil consumption comes from Ploesti. -- Sunday 1st August 1943 177 Liberators took-off from airstrips around Benghazi, Libya - for an attack against Ploesti. - The bomb raid destroyed about 40 percent of the refineries' production capacity - but German 8,8cm flak shut down 54 of the Liberators. Four months later the refinery was rebuilt, and not only reached former production, but even an increase of 5-7 percent of refined products.
The German Hydrierwerke were only able to account for about 5 percent of the total German oil consumption, - but of course the 8th Army Air Force thought otherwise, and spent quite exagerated efforts in their attacks against Leuna Werke and other of the syntetic plants - vy 73 - KAL +

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Juha
Oil
Wed Jan 2 11:07:24 2002


Hello radiomonitor
The source I mentioned is the report of the English equavalent to the US Strategic Bombing Survey. It was made after the war and was a scientific study based on the German documents. If it was somewhat biased it was biased for the transport plan not for the oil plan. It had nothing to do on what the US 8th AF thought during the war.
I'm well aware of the attacks on Ploesti, BTW not all of the B-24s lost during the 1st Aug. 43 attack were shot down by the flak and not all those shot down by the flak were shot down by the 88s. But from where you got your production percentes. Because the synthetic fuel was one of Görings pet projects, large percent of its products were linked to the LWs needs.

Best Regards
Juha

[Richard T Eger]

For reports on the German petroleum industry, see the topic "Fischer-Tropisch Archive" on the forum "Archives on the World Wide Web".

Regards,
Richard



[This message has been edited by Richard T Eger (edited 10 July 2002).]