After the war, Speer told American interrogators that a full-out offensive against the synthetic plants by the combined air armadas of England and America—closely spaced raids, night and day, without cease—could [alone] have brought about Germany’s surrender . . . in eight weeks.” That is unlikely. This war, like almost all others, had to be won on the ground, but earlier and more sustained attacks on oil would surely have shortened the war on the Western Front by several months.
