The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940-1945

by Richard Overy

Whatever the operational drawbacks to flying in poor weather against heavily defended targets, enough bombs struck the oil plants and transport network to cause sufficient disruption. The transport plan was put into effect by the Eighth Air Force in early September, but serious assaults on the main rail junctions and marshaling yards began in October against Cologne, Hamm, and Duisburg. The Rhine was blocked at Cologne by a lucky strike on the Cologne-Mülheim Bridge, which collapsed into the water, blocking one of Germany’s main traffic waterways. By November the German Railway was down to eleven days’ supply of coal, by December 12 down to five days. Southern and eastern parts of Germany were starved of coal; locomotives and wagons were routinely strafed by fighters and fighter-bombers. Out of 250,000 goods wagons available, almost half were inoperable by late November. Total rail freight traffic fell by 46 percent from September 1944 to January 1945. In the Ruhr, rolling stock available for daily use was by late October half the level of September. Rolling stock was withdrawn farther away from the attacks in western Germany, but the result was to block supplies of coal and coke from the Ruhr and force a reduction of one-third in electricity generation.107 Serious damage to the Mittelland Canal, the main link between the Ruhr and central Germany, left it unusable for much of October and November. Coal traffic on inland waterways was 2.2 million tons in September, but 422,...