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Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt, an industrial city of some
52,000
people located on the Main River in northern Bavaria, was a center for the manufacture of
anti-friction bearings during World War II (and still is). As the U.S. 8th Air Force began to build
up its strength in England in 1943, planners wished to concentrate on bombing those
industrial targets that they felt would most hurt the German war effort, particularly the
enemy aircraft industry. Low-friction ball and roller bearings were used in all parts of
military and commercial machinery, and research indicated that roughly half of the German
bearing industry was located in Schweinfurt, concentrated at four or five factory sites on
the western side of town. The 8th Air Force planners felt that if they could strike hard
enough at Schweinfurt, the results might cripple the German war industry.
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| The primary Schweinfurt
targets ... left, the Hochgebäude (high-rise building) of the
Kugelfischer-Georg-Schäfer company, the largest bearing manufacturer in Schweinfurt (see
below); center, the administration buildings of the Fichtel &
Sachs company (see below); right, workers on the
bearing lines in one of the buildings of the Vereinigte Kugellagerfabriken (VKF) company
(see below). Note that although Fichtel & Sachs
were no
longer primarily a bearing producer by the start of World War II, the company did re-open
bearing lines during the war, and was targeted by Allied bombers as such. (Photos
on left and right from a 1936 info pamphlet on Schweinfurt, in the center from a 1937
postcard; both in author's collection) |
The U.S. 8th Air Force insisted on precision
daylight bombing as being most effective (as opposed to the British Royal Air Force which bombed
at night, targeting wide areas instead of pinpoint targets); however, that left the B-17
bombers at the mercy of the Luftwaffe for most of their journeys to and from the target,
as the Allies did not yet have fighter planes with a range to escort the bombers much
beyond the German border. Nonetheless, the planners felt that the "combat box" formations of the
heavily-armed "Flying Fortresses" would provide sufficient interlocking
firepower to defeat the German fighters.
Accordingly, Schweinfurt was attacked first on
17 August 1943. 230 B-17s left England, but the Luftwaffe had over 300 fighters available
to oppose them, and only 184 B-17s bombed Schweinfurt, and 36 did not return to England.
The firepower of the box formations had not been enough to defeat the Luftwaffe, and the
bomber crews suffered 341 casualties. Coupled with a loss of 24 bombers and 200 men from a
strike on Regensburg that same day, this was a heavy blow to the 8th Air Force. In
addition, reconnaissance indicated the Schweinfurt bombing was not as accurate as had been
hoped. The ball bearing factories had not been critically damaged.
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"Bomber Raids on
Schweinfurt 1943" - Marshall Islands postage stamp |
"Attack on Schweinfurt"
- Antigua-Barbuda postage stamp |
After rebuilding its strength, the 8th Air
Force again attacked Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943, a day that would go down in history
as "Black Thursday." 291 B-17s left England, 229 bombed the target, and 60
bombers were lost. Crew casualties amounted to 639 men ... a loss the 8th Air
Force could not afford, and which put a halt, for the time being, to unescorted deep
strikes. The bombing was more accurate this time, but hindsight shows that it was not a
crippling blow to the bearing industry.
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Bombs from the first wave of B-17s
falling on Schweinfurt on "Black Thursday." Bombs are hitting the Kugelfischer
and VKF-Werk I factories and the railroad marshalling yards just west of the downtown
area, but are also falling on residential areas north and west of downtown, and some bombs
are falling very wide of the mark south of the Main River and downriver to the southwest
(at the lower left corner). (National Archives, RG 342-FH) |
Modern map of Schweinfurt at the
same scale and orientation, with the ball bearing factory areas outlined in red. The
factory closest to downtown (small one near the center of the map) was the VKF-Werk I. The large site
next to the left was the Kugelfischer-Georg-Schäfer complex, the largest in Schweinfurt.
South of the railroad yards, the smaller site was VKF-Werk II. At the left edge of the map
is the Fichtel & Sachs facility, with the small Deutsche Star factory inset at the
lower left. |
Click
here for a link to a MapQuest map of Schweinfurt.
The 8th Air Force did not attack Schweinfurt
again until February 1944, by which time the Allies had long-range escort fighters and the
Luftwaffe was on the wane. In total, Schweinfurt was bombed 22 times by 2285 aircraft
during World War II, including attacks by the U.S. 8th and 15th Air
Forces, night bombing by the British Royal Air Force, and a final
tactical
attack by the 12th Air Force on
10 April 1945, the day before the U.S. Army took the city. A total of 7933 tons of bombs
were dropped on Schweinfurt (592,598 individual bombs), some 65% of the total dropped by the
Allies on all bearing
industry plants. However, after the "Black Thursday" strike, the bearing
industry was dispersed as much as practical, and it was no longer possible to cripple the
industry by concentrating on Schweinfurt. Post-war investigation by the U.S. Strategic
Bombing Survey showed that while production fell by early 1944 to about half of the
pre-attack totals, it rose again to about 85 percent by mid-1944. The German war machine
never suffered from a significant loss in bearing supply throughout the war. But
Schweinfurt was left largely in ruins ... half of the houses and four-fifths
of the industrial buildings destroyed, with 1079 civilian casualties.
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Citizens hurry through the
Schillerplatz toward an air-raid shelter during an alarm. The large
building is the 1905 Justizgebäude (Justice Building). (Stadtarchiv
Schweinfurt) |
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The main factory building of the
VKF-Werk I was heavily damaged. The building was repaired, and new
construction added on the near side. The company is now the world bearing supplier
SKF. (Note - this building was torn down in late 2006.) (Stadtarchiv Schweinfurt) |
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The VKF-Werk II ball bearing
factory burns after one of the bombing attacks. In common with most of the 1940s
factory buildings, the VKF buildings were rebuilt in
substantially their original form. (Stadtarchiv Schweinfurt) |
How the analysts of the U.S. Strategic
Bombing Survey found the VKF-Werk II
facility in April 1945. (National Archives - USSBS files)
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The Kugelfischer
ball bearing factory burns after one of the bombing attacks. This side of the main building was
mostly destroyed, but rebuilt in its original form. The company is now FAG-Kugelfischer.
(Stadtarchiv
Schweinfurt) |
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The high-rise
administration building, or Hochgebäude, of the Kugelfischer-Georg-Schäfer
company, in 1936 and today. (1936 info pamphlet on Schweinfurt, author's
collection) |
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Following the October
1943 attack, the buildings of the Kugelfischer plant were disguised to mislead
aerial bomb damage assessment. On the left, the Hochgebäude was painted after
repair, to resemble dangling metal wreckage in the elevator shaft (this was in reality a
flat wall surface, with the elevator back in operation - this is the other side of the
building from that shown in the photos above, which was heavily damaged - see below). The
building on the right was painted to simulate damage to the bricks. (United
States Strategic Bombing Survey, Vol. 53) |
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Ruins of the
high-rise administration building of the Kugelfischer-George-Schäfer company, as seen by
the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey team in 1945; and as the building appears today. (National
Archives, RG 342-FH 3A22468) |
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Administration buildings of the
Kugelfischer factory on fire. This scene has changed very little
today. (Stadtarchiv Schweinfurt) |
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Ruins of the Kugelfischer plant in
1945. Most of the buildings show bomb damage, and some have been leveled. The
Panzerkaserne (now US Army Ledward Barracks)
is in the left distance, at the upper edge of this view. (Stadtarchiv
Schweinfurt) |
Modern aerial view from a slightly
different angle. Ledward Barracks is in the
center distance (white buildings with gray roofs, at the top edge). (FAG-Kugelfischer-Georg-Schäfer
AG) |
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500-pound bombs cratered
Ernst-Sachs-Straße between the Fichtel & Sachs
factory (seen here) and the VKF-Werk II facilities. Today the company uses
the
name ZF-Sachs (a subsidiary of ZF Friedrichshafen AG). (Stadtarchiv Schweinfurt) |
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Looking down Ernst-Sachs-Straße
in the opposite direction, at another large crater in the street. The Fichtel & Sachs
buildings are to the left. (Stadtarchiv Schweinfurt) |
The rebuilt VKF-Werk II building
shown in the comparison above is on the right
in this view, with another VKF (now SKF) building just beyond it. |
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| Left -
view of the Fichtel & Sachs building after a bombing attack in 1944.
Right - aerial view of the Sachs works in
1971. The VKF-Werk II building
(now SKF) appears in the lower left corner, across Ernst-Sachs-Straße from
the F&S buildings. (Elmar Hahn & Rainer Mehl, "Schweinfurt," 1971) |
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One of the Allied
casualties - a B-17 crash-landed near Elfershausen (northwest of Schweinfurt).
This is B-17F #42-30191 of the 379th Bomb Group, "The
Bolevich," piloted by Lt. Donald W. Merchant. This plane suffered hits from fighters
and flak during the August 17 attack and crashed-landed shortly after the
bomb run, killing T/Sgt. Gene
Hecht, whose parachute failed to open. According to period German
reports, the plane came down in this location south of Elfershausen, and was
a victim of the Schweinfurt flak batteries (not fighters). German reports
gave credit to the batteries at Geldersheim, Oberndorf, Deutschhof, and
the Großbatterie Panzerkaserne.
(private collection)
(MapQuest
Map Link) |
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Batterie
Spitalholz was a concentration of flak guns defending Schweinfurt from across the
river south of the city. Several 8.8cm
anti-aircraft guns were emplaced here in earthen positions. The photo on the left shows
part of this battery after one of the bombing attacks - the guns in their earthworks still
point skyward, while the target areas burn in the distance. Unfortunately, the 1960s Autobahn
was built through here, with an interchange in this area, and growth of the Hafen
industrial and business area is obliterating any resemblance to the period photo. (Stadtarchiv
Schweinfurt) |
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The
gun positions of Batterie Spitalholz can be seen in this reconnaissance photo showing the
targets burning after the 14 October 1943 attack. The area outlined in red appears
enlarged at right - a quadrangle of the earthen gun positions can be seen in the center.
Other positions were under construction along the woodline to the southwest. (National
Archives, RG 342-FH) |
Click here to see other photos of the Schweinfurt flak
battery positions.
 Continue to Schweinfurt, Part 2 --
bombing damage to the city itself, and capture of the city by the U.S. Army.
Schweinfurt, Part 3, shows
air raid shelters and memorials to the bombing victims.
Schweinfurt, Part 4, contains
then and now photos of Nazi rallies and marches in Schweinfurt, as well as Wehrmacht
military installations.
See also the subpage
on the Luftwaffe Munitions Depot at Rottershausen, north of Schweinfurt.
Cick here for a list
of suggested readings on the battles for Schweinfurt.
I wish to acknowledge the kind assistance of
the staff of the Stadtarchiv Schweinfurt provided during my photo research
there.
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