[Ragnar]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wolfshook:
Uhhh, yeah, and FLAK were manned by the Luftwaffe, not the Heer.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Albert Speer referred to the book “The Army Air Forces In World War II” written by Craven and Gates. Speer claims that the writers over-estimate the effect of the allied bombing on the German war industry.

I can’t go in details here. It’s too long.

Here is a part of it.

Quote Albert Speer.
Dated 12. August 1959.

“ The real importance of the air war was that it long before the invasion (Normandy) created a second front. This front was directed against German airspace. The bomb-raids could anytime emerge over every one of the big cities, over every important industry area. The capriciousness of these attacks lead to a broad front. Every square meter of the area we controlled belonged to it. The air defense demanded thousands of flaks lined up. Storage of enormous amount of ammunition on countless places, and hundreds of thousands of alerted soldiers – as most of the time were inactive with their guns.

As far as I know nobody have realized that this was the most serious loss on the German side. The losses during the retreat from Russia or the capitulation at Stalingrad were nothing compares to this. The almost 20 000 flaks which were still within Germany, would almost have doubled the panzer forces at the Eastern Front; Because they almost were of no use at home, they created just a reassuring firework for the people in the cities which were under attack. The speed of the 8,8-cm flak-grenade was so low when they reached the heights those bombers were flying at, that we couldn’t aim accurate.”


That was the voice of Albert Speer.
I have translated this text word by word as far as I could, but the grammar in Norwegian and English language is quite different so I had to turn a few sentences.

It’s a second hand source, and just a part of a text.
Bear in mind that this text has been translated from German to Norwegian and after that translated by me from Norwegian to English.

However I think that this source is reliable.
To me his point of view is very interesting, and it makes sense.
We should consider this information when we make up our minds about the WWII together with all the other WWII stuff of course.

Without a two front war the result could have been different, but it could also been the same. Who knows? “ I can no more say.”

In the end. Sometimes historians use the word “ soldiers” as a general description on every fighting man involved or available. They won’t always mess with details if they can get to the point without.