Target for Today (1944)
1h 31min | War, Documentary, History
Documentary about one bombing mission over Germany by the American Eighth Air Force, from the initial planning for the mission thru finsl completion of the mission, with all of its intricacies from beginning to end.
Director: William Keighley (uncredited)
1h 31min | War, Documentary, History
Documentary about one bombing mission over Germany by the American Eighth Air Force, from the initial planning for the mission thru finsl completion of the mission, with all of its intricacies from beginning to end.
Director: William Keighley (uncredited)
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00In the British Isles, there are the Allied Air Forces.
00:03On the European continent, we have Regensburg,
00:07Marienburg, Bremen, Ossesleben,
00:10Warnemünde, and Kassel.
00:14These are the major German fighter assembly plants,
00:17and as such, are actually the center
00:19of Germany's industrial defense line.
00:21However, these are only the places
00:23where the aircraft is assembled
00:25into the finished fighting machine.
00:27Component parts for German fighters
00:29are made at Anklam,
00:31the Weserflugzeugbau works at Bremen,
00:34the great Hederheim propeller works near Frankfurt,
00:38the aircraft tire factory at Hanover,
00:40the CAM ball-bearing plant at Paris,
00:44and the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt.
00:47Obviously, an assembly plant can't operate
00:50if other plants aren't building the parts
00:52from which the enemy planes will be assembled.
00:56Hulse produced 29%
00:58of all German synthetic rubber production,
01:00and is, in fact, responsible for 18%
01:03of her entire supply of rubber, natural or synthetic.
01:07At Boschum, there's a great steel plant
01:10producing high-grade aviation steel.
01:12Aroya, up in Norway,
01:14is a great producer of aluminum and magnesium,
01:18metals which figure importantly in aircraft production.
01:21At Hamm, there are great railroad marshalling yards,
01:25having a capacity of 10,000 freight cars a day.
01:28Much of the tonnage handled here
01:30is closely connected with the manufacture,
01:33assembly, maintenance, and repair of enemy aircraft.
01:36And so it is all over Germany and occupied Europe.
01:40Everywhere there are plants and installations
01:43that contribute directly or indirectly
01:45to the making of German aircraft,
01:47industrial bastions which must first be ripped apart
01:51before the enemy's armies can be destroyed.
01:54The smashing blows by the Allied air forces
01:56at Hulse, Aroya, Regensburg, Schweinfurt,
02:01Hanover, and Frankfurt have had the result
02:03of piercing the German industrial line
02:05to the extent of 37.5%
02:08of estimated single-engine fighter production
02:11in September of 1943.
02:14If this rate of drop continues,
02:16there can be only one result,
02:18the eventual disappearance of the Luftwaffe
02:21as a defensive force.
02:23But these attacks have had other far-reaching effects.
02:27For instance, in January of 1943,
02:30just when the 8th Bomber Command
02:32had started daylight attacks against Germany proper,
02:3542% of the German fighter strength
02:38was concentrated in Western Europe,
02:4033% of it in Russia,
02:42and 25% in the Mediterranean area.
02:47After 10 months of American bombers
02:49appearing by day over Germany,
02:51the figures line up more like this.
02:54On the Russian front, 19%.
02:57In the Mediterranean area, 12%.
03:00And in Western Europe, 69%.
03:03Germany thought it was urgent enough
03:05to withdraw fighters from two important theaters,
03:08all in a vain attempt to save their crumbling industry
03:11from the grim, destructive blows
03:13of the British-American bomber offensive.
03:16That is why the Battle of Germany is being fought.
03:19Now we come to the problem,
03:22how are the targets selected?
03:23And what enormous effort is necessary
03:25for the 10 or 15 minutes that our air task forces
03:29will be over any given target?