Figure 1.-- This photograph of an attack near Marienburg, East Prussia looks like a wasteful mission releasing bombs in farm land. In fact it was part of the German effort to disperse war plants. They opened a plant for the new FW-90 in a rural area of East Prussia which they thought was beyond the range of Allied bombers. Notice the plant runway. And the American B-17s absolutely plastered that plant. British Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Air Marshall Harris's strongest suopotrter, described the Marienburg raid as the “... most perfect example in history of the accurate distribution of bombs over a target." For the German people, unfortunstely, most war fsctories were located in or near cities.

Not all raids in late 1943 were short range. The VIII Bomber Command's Mission Number 113 was a raid conducted by the 410th Bomb Squadron, 94th Bombardment Group (Heavy). Nearly 100 American B-17 heavy (four engine) bombers hit the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG aircraft factory at Marienburg, East Prussia, now Malbork in Poland). This was a factory building the FW-190 fighter was built. Notice the factory runway for the finished planes. When the British began bombing, the Germans instituted a range of measures to to compensate. One of those was to disperse aircraft production. Notice the rural area where the FW plant was built. In addition, the Germans believed that Marienburg was beyond the range of Allied bombers. A major priority in 1943 was aircraft factories. And the FW-190 was Germany's most effective fighters. The Germans built 20,000 in some 16 different variants. This was not a target Bomber Command operating at night and using area bombing techniques could hit. Here the Americans have smashed the factory in an impressive display of precision bombing. Two B-17s were lost with 13 more damaged. This was a exceptionally low loss rate for deep penetration raids into the Reich. Three American air crews were men were wounded and 21 listed as Missing in Action. The bomber gunners claimed shooting down 9 Luftwaffe fighters and 2 probably destroyed. While the Eighth Air Force was losing planes and crews, the Luftwaffe was also taking losses. It would not be until fighter escorts were possible that the German losses became unsustainable. A reconnaissance mission flown the next fay by a RAF Mosquito recorded the results. The target assessment estimated that some 15 FW-190 fighters were destroyed on the ground in and around the plant. Casualties among the factory workers was believed to be high. Of the 669 workers, 114 were killed and 76 injured. (We are not sure how such a precise estimate was made, it suggests access to a German report. British Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, described the Marienburg raid as the “... most perfect example in history of the accurate distribution of bombs over a target."

Created: 5:45 PM 1/9/2024
Last updated: 5:46 PM 1/9/2024