ArtKramr
January 7th 04, 09:22 PM
I am going to outline a real situation that occurred during
WW II. I would like to hear opinions and solutions as to how the
situation should be handled. I will give the real solution that was imposed
during the war after a week or so when many opinions have been offered.
There was a large factory producing torpedo gyroscopes and
timing devices for the German submarine service. It was located in
the midst of a very populated area where the highly skilled workers
lived with their families. These workers were near irreplaceable. It took
many years to learn the needed skills, and without these workers
production and quality would have been dramatically down graded. One more
point. This factory was not in any country with which America or
England was at war. What would you have done? Remember these German
torpedoes were slaughtering American and British seamen and denying food and
arms to England. Opinions?
THE SOLUTION
The country was Switzerland. The city was Schaffhausen and the company was IWC,
a leading maker of precision instruments and precision watch movements, timers
and gyroscopes. Almost the full production of this company went to the German
war effort. It was located in Northern Switzerland not too far from the German
border. On April 1st the B-24's of the 392nd Bomb Group set out on a mission
to hit chemical plants at Ludwigshaven. The weather was terrible. As the group
approached Lake Constance it split up and due to a navigation error wandered
into Swiss airspace. Mistaking industrial buildings in Schaffhausen for the
chemical plant it did a bomb run hitting the IWC plant and destroying it
totally as well as the surrounding area. The Swiss protested and the U.S.
apologized profusely and disciplined the Group leader of the 392nd for his
carelessness. But in the end the Swiss (see below) agreed to stop exports of
munitions and explosives to Germany. It was all just an innocent error that had
some positive fallout in the end.
The Diplomacy of Apology:
U.S. Bombings of Switzerland during World War II
by
Dr. Jonathan E. Helmreich
THAT the United States bombed the small, neutral state of Switzerland during
World War II seems at first implausible, but such attacks did occur. There was
a scattering of incidents in 1943. Then on 1 April 1944 the northern Swiss City
of Schaffhausen was seriously damaged. As the Allied air attack on Germany
intensified, the number of raids on Swiss territory increased, culminating in
the nearly simultaneous bombings of Basel and Zurich on 4 March 1945.
SWISS END EXPORTS TO GERMANY
In October the Swiss agreed to end the export of munitions and explosives to
Germany, but the issue of transit traffic remained. The Allies were also
annoyed by the amount of other valuable material the Germans were still able to
purchase from the Swiss, including railroad switching engines, industrial
supplies and machine tools, and two billion kilowatt hours per year of electric
power. Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson was therefore quick to inform
Major General Hull at the Pentagon that Spanish exports to Switzerland were
resuming by truck. He recommended that Switzerland not be permitted to make
imports across France until she had stopped all war aid to Germany. The
undersecretary further suggested that facts regarding the Swiss aid to Germany
be brought to the attention of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied
Expeditionary Forces.
Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer
WW II. I would like to hear opinions and solutions as to how the
situation should be handled. I will give the real solution that was imposed
during the war after a week or so when many opinions have been offered.
There was a large factory producing torpedo gyroscopes and
timing devices for the German submarine service. It was located in
the midst of a very populated area where the highly skilled workers
lived with their families. These workers were near irreplaceable. It took
many years to learn the needed skills, and without these workers
production and quality would have been dramatically down graded. One more
point. This factory was not in any country with which America or
England was at war. What would you have done? Remember these German
torpedoes were slaughtering American and British seamen and denying food and
arms to England. Opinions?
THE SOLUTION
The country was Switzerland. The city was Schaffhausen and the company was IWC,
a leading maker of precision instruments and precision watch movements, timers
and gyroscopes. Almost the full production of this company went to the German
war effort. It was located in Northern Switzerland not too far from the German
border. On April 1st the B-24's of the 392nd Bomb Group set out on a mission
to hit chemical plants at Ludwigshaven. The weather was terrible. As the group
approached Lake Constance it split up and due to a navigation error wandered
into Swiss airspace. Mistaking industrial buildings in Schaffhausen for the
chemical plant it did a bomb run hitting the IWC plant and destroying it
totally as well as the surrounding area. The Swiss protested and the U.S.
apologized profusely and disciplined the Group leader of the 392nd for his
carelessness. But in the end the Swiss (see below) agreed to stop exports of
munitions and explosives to Germany. It was all just an innocent error that had
some positive fallout in the end.
The Diplomacy of Apology:
U.S. Bombings of Switzerland during World War II
by
Dr. Jonathan E. Helmreich
THAT the United States bombed the small, neutral state of Switzerland during
World War II seems at first implausible, but such attacks did occur. There was
a scattering of incidents in 1943. Then on 1 April 1944 the northern Swiss City
of Schaffhausen was seriously damaged. As the Allied air attack on Germany
intensified, the number of raids on Swiss territory increased, culminating in
the nearly simultaneous bombings of Basel and Zurich on 4 March 1945.
SWISS END EXPORTS TO GERMANY
In October the Swiss agreed to end the export of munitions and explosives to
Germany, but the issue of transit traffic remained. The Allies were also
annoyed by the amount of other valuable material the Germans were still able to
purchase from the Swiss, including railroad switching engines, industrial
supplies and machine tools, and two billion kilowatt hours per year of electric
power. Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson was therefore quick to inform
Major General Hull at the Pentagon that Spanish exports to Switzerland were
resuming by truck. He recommended that Switzerland not be permitted to make
imports across France until she had stopped all war aid to Germany. The
undersecretary further suggested that facts regarding the Swiss aid to Germany
be brought to the attention of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied
Expeditionary Forces.
Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer