Figure 1.-- The NAZIs managed their lack of metal ores amazingly reasonably well. There were some exceptions such as the kit of the German soldier which included not only a lot of leather, but aluminum canteens and gas mask canisters. Because of the importance of the air war this diversion of aluminum impacted air craft construction. This iconic image taken at the onset of Barbarossa. Note that both have their aluminum gas mask cyliners. The main German economic problem was not the lack of metal ores, but prioved to be industrial policy.

Metals are needed to make miltary weapons. And Germany prepring for World War II was in even worst shape than for World War I. And both wars were wars Germany elected to launch. The British and French were well awarev of this and thought could stop the Germans on the Western Front as they did in World War I the German economy wouild colapse again. This did not, however, work--largely because ohe Soviet Union was a NAZI ally (1939-41) and supplied the NAZIs with massive quantities of food, oil, and metal ores. Oil was especially important, but Germany was also lacking in almost all metal ores. It had some small mines, including some important iron deposits. alyjough evn herethe ore grades were generally poor. And Germany could in no way could approach the domestic demand even for iron. And this was in peace time. Once the war broke out there would be massively increased demand for all metals. And for almost all of these metal ores were no important dosmestic source. The one option Germany had was to stockpile, but as the result of the Depression and the NAZI autarky policy, Germany was no longer exporting as it once did. Thus it did not have the foreign exchange earnings needed to amass huge stockpiles. Hitler was well aware of this and in the Hossbach Memnorandum told the assembed military commanders, but even as regards ores, the position was much more difficult. Iron requirements can be met from home resources and similarly with light metals. but, but with other raw raw materials -- copper, tin -- this was not the case. 【Hossbach】 Here Hitler was wrong. With the nost important metal (iron ore) German production was in no way sufficuent to support domestic demnand, especially as demand escalted once the war began. Amazingly until the final year of the War, the Germans were able to make do. This was primarily because of their pre-war sucesses (Austria and Czechoslovakia) and astonishing military successes in the firat year and a half of the War (Poland, Scadnanavia, France and the Low Countrirs, Yugoslavia, and Greece). These successes also gace them access to force cioynries into the Axis (Bulgasria, Hungry, and Romania) and to obtasin shipment from neutral countries (Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey). They occupied neigboring countries wih important mines as well as seized the stockples of conquered countries. The French strategic stockpiles were especially important. The Germans managed their lack of metal ores remarably well, with some exceptions. Their major economic problem would be industria policy, not lack of metal ores.

Aluminium

Aluminium was another vital metal needed by the German war industry, especially the aircraft industry. And Germany had to import virtually all of the bauxite ore neded to produce aluminium. Early German victories were achieved by their modern, all metal aircraft like the ME-109. Germany was largely dependent on Hungary and Yugoslavia for bauxite. Hungary was a NAZI ally and Yugoslaviaas inaded and ocupied by the Germans in a perfectly executed Blitzkrieg campaign (April 1941). Norway was another vital source of aluminium. As in other occupied countries, Noregian industrialists collaborated with the German ocupation forces. And new factories were built for manufacturing aluminium. Th ciuntry's abundant hydro-electric power made it the perfectplace to produce aluminum. One historian repors that " ... Norwegian companies worked for the Germans, as collaborators, without ideologically having a Nazi orientation. The companies simply continued to operate on the basis of commercial, competitive interests. But by doing so they were actively aiding Germany in its efforts to win the war." 【Frøland】 After failing to defeat Britain and then invading the Soviet Union and declaring war on America, th Grmns needed vast quantities of aluminum, much more than the quantity neded to build the relatively small force used to achieve their ealy victories. the Germans develped a plan to increase Norwegian aluminium production sevenfold. It was to be a cooperative effort between Norwegian Aluminium Company (NACO) and Norwegian Hydro. The problem was bauxite, the ore used to produce aluminumm. Norway did not have bauxite and as the war began to go against Germany, getting the needed bauxite to Norway proved impossible.

Chromium

Turkey was of interest to the Germans orimarily fior stratehuc reasons, but also because it was a source of chromite. Turkish President İsmet İnönü pursued a policy of neutrality, unlkike World War I, trying to avoid involvement in the war. He tried to nibtain military equipment deliveries from both the Axis powers and the Allies. Lebd Lease was only available to countries waging war on the Axis. The Nazis attemoted to draw Turkey away from the Allies using diplomatic efforts. On Hitker's mind was that the Ottoman Empire was an allky in World War I. Germany and Turkey signed a Treaty of Friendship (April 18, 1941). Four days after the signing, the NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union, probably unrelated. A few months later, Turkey and Germany signed the Clodius Agreement (October 1941). German negotiator, Karl Clodius, cleared the way for large scale chromiote exports to Germany. Turkey agreed to export up 45,000 tons of chromite ore to Germany (1941-42) and 90,000 tons of the ore in 1943 and 1944. Thgis was contingent on Germany's supplies of military equipment to Turkey. We believe there were also payments in gold. The Germans were to provide as many as 117 railway locomotives and 1,250 freight rail cars to transport the ore. The Allies attempted to intervene. The United States and the United Kingdom attempted to buy out Turkish chromite, even though they had their own supplies. There was a package deal, the Anglo-Americans began buying Turkish dried fruit and tobacco. 【United States State Department】 The Soviet Red Army entered Bulgaria and cut rail trade contacts between Turkey and Germany.

Cobalt

Cobalt was another strategic metal, used to oroduce military grade steel. Chromite ore was mined in only a few countries in the world. It was Turkey's most important export. NAZI Germany was Turkey's major trading partner during the 1930s. More than half of Turkey's exports were to Germany before the War. Britain and France as the war wanted to prevent Germany from acquiring Turkey's Chromite ore and also to build up their supplies of this strategic metal. Turkey offered to sell all of its Chromite ore production to Britain and France for 20 years if they agreed to buy the agricultural products which Germany had been importing. Germany threatened to cut off imports from Turkey if tgey sold Chromite ore to other countries. Beginning with the Allied abandomment ifCzechoslobakia, the Turks began to reassess their strategic position and rlation with the Allies. The Soviet Union norovided Germany subtantial quantities of cobalt under the terms of the NAZI-Soviet Nonn-Aggression Pact. Turkey signed the Turco-German Non-Aggression Pact (June 18, 1941), days before Hitler launchd Barbarossa. After invading the Soviet Union, the Germans obtained needed cobalt from Turkey, another country thet had to pay for the shipments.

Copper

Copper was a major strategic metal needed to fight the War, the second most imprtant metal after iron. Copper had many valuable properties -- prinariluy the high electrical conductivity of copper. And electricity was necessary for vital weapons systems, motor vehicles, aircraft, and naval shipping, especially U-boats-in short the major weapons system of the War. Copper was also vital in communications equipment, radar, and sonar. Germany had to import some 70 percent of the copper it needed for its war economy. Germany had some domestic sources. Before the War, however, Germany got most of its copper from Britain. It was re-exported from South Africa, Canada, Chile, and the Belgian Congo. British-occupid Cyrprus was also a source of copper before the War. All of the British shipment of course were immediately cut off. After the War began, the Soviet Union began supplying copper to the Germans (Octiber 1939). This of course ended with the German invasion (June 1941). The Germans got a sudden binaza after their victory in the West (June 1940). Substantial French stockpiles of strategic materials were now in their hands. One of the moist important was copper. After invading and occupying Yugoslavia (April 1941), the Bor copper mine proved an important source. Sweden was another source throughout the War. .

Gold

Gold was a reserve metal used for jewlry and to support natioal currencies. Unlike today there was little industrial use for it. But it was vital for the German war economy. Hitler needed the Reichmark to retain its value so he could pursue his massive rearmament program. And the Reichbank did not have much in the way of gild or hard currencies to support the currency. Here his finamcial genious, Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht, stepped in. This unlikely German name resulted from his father's emigratiion to America. Schacht was a highly respected figure in Germany..He was the financier who had broken the country’s hyperinflation (1923). Hitler apponted him president of the Reichbank and Finance Minister. For some 6 crucial years he fooled the German and international markets, hiding the huge defecits the NAZI regime was running in its armaament spending (1933-39). 【Taber】 Eventually Hitler would dispense with Schacht when he began demanding that the spending be curtailed (1939). And by this time Hitler needed gold to buy the many vital strategic materials Germany lacked. Thge neutral counties that Had what H=Germany needed (Poland Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey) had no interest in Reichmarks which had littke value on the inernational market. They wanted gold. And this is just when Germany beganvinvading other counries and in several cases was able to seize their gold holdings. Swiss bankers played a crucial role in the transactions by being the NAZI financial middlemen. Austria was the first victim. Schacht had helped create the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and was a gold expert. The Austrian Central Bank had about 100 tons of gold--four vtimes a much as the Reuichbank and it all went to Berlin. The Germans even through the BIS got their hands on 5.7 tons that it had shipped to London for safekeeping. As well as 14.3 t of private gold extorted from Austria's terrified Jewish community. Schacht's friendship with Montagu Norman, Bank of England President, ebabled the NAZIs to get ahold of the Czech gold theough the BIS. Prime-Minister Chambdrlain did not intervene, aprt bof the appeasement effort. 【Joy】 After all this became known, foreign central bankers desperately began getting the bullion out of their vaults countries and shipping it to safety in Canada and the United States. And Churchill stopped the nonsence with the BIS. The gold was stored at the New York Federal Reserve vaults, but evenbtuallyn went to Fort Knox safely out of Hitler's grasp. The Vatican secretly sent nearly 8 tons of gold to New York. The Bank of England shipped 2,000 tons across the U-boat infested Atlantic (May 1940). This included both Britisdh gold and the gild of other European countries being stired in Londoin. The U-boats missed these shioments, but did sink a Soviet ship ladden with gold. After the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union (June 1941), the Soviets send their three most valuable properties 900 miles east beyond the Ural Mountains: Lenin’s embalmed body, the art works of Leningrad’s Hermitage Museum, and 2,800 tons of gold. The Germna were desperate for more gold and would evebtually colledct the teeth of their Jewish victims which were shipoped to the Reichbank. Evetually bthe NAZIs would seize some $19 billion (2013 doolars) worth of gold , including gold teeth. At the end of the War the NAZIs still had 300 t of gold, more than they had upon launching the War.

Iron

Germany unlike many other important resources had did have some iron ore mines A pre-World War I assessment reported, "About 35 percent, is brown iron ore, 25 percent spathic iron ore, 25 percent spahic iron, 18 percent black band, and 10 percent red iron ore. The rest consist of clay-ironstone, bog-iron ore (in the northern lowland), and magnetic ores. Unfortunately but a few of the mines are found in proximity to the country's coal-pits, and important ore-deposits of great extent are far from coal, as, for instance, the iron districts of Nassau, of the Sieg valley, and of Hesse, Thuringia, Lorraine, Bavaria, and Würtemberg." 【"Germany"】 The German mines were lsrgely played out and producing lower grade ores (low iron content). Of all the differnt metals iron ore was by far the most important. Iron is the principal metal used to produce steel, and steel is the most important metal used in the production of weapons. Steel was the backbone of Germany's war industry. Steel was needed to produce weapons of all kind used by the Army and Navy--and even the Luftwaffe. (Aluminum was used for air frames, but the engine, armor, and weapons as well as bombs and amunition required steel. Germany had one of the world's most important steel industry--second only to the United States. While Germany has iron ore mines, they were not nearly large enough and the grades (iron content) high enough to supply the demand from the country's war industries. And the grades not high to begin with were declining. Göring was insuisen on using German ore, so the low grade German ore needed to be mixed with higher grade imported ores. The Germans relied heavily on nearby Swedish iron ore which was of higher quality and available in large quantities. This was important because of Sweden's geographic location. Located just north of Geramny across the Baltic, the British Royal Navy was not in a good position to cut off shipments, espcially afterthe loss of Norway, as it did for most overseas suppliers of natural resources. Sweden, a neutral country, had been sympathetic to Germany during World War I. Before the War, some 75 percent of Sweden's iron ore exports were to Germany. It was an important part of the Swedish economy and Swedish industriaslists wanted to continue the trade. After Germany launched the War, the Swedes were terrified of a German invasion, particularly after the Geramns invaded and occupied Denmark and Norway (April 1940). During the winter when the Baltic ports froze, the Swedes had to ship their iron ore through the Norwegian port of Narvik, one reason that the Germans invaded that country. The iron ore situation improved somewhat after the invasion and occupation of France (May-Jume 1940). That gave the Germans access to the French Briey and Longwy iron-ore basins.

Nickle

Nicklel was used to make alloy steel. The primary use for noth the Germans and Allies a strengthening agent in many of these alloys. This was mostly for the use in armor plating, especially tanks. The German jet engines created a need high-pressure gas jets using rapidly spinning turbines to compress air and eject it through exhaust nozzles. The fast-spinning turbines reached high temperatures and stresses and required new metal alloys to withstand these forces. The same problem existed in the rocket program. The same problen caused the United States to issue nickles (5 cent coins) without any nickel content. The nickel was replaced with silver, showing the value of nicklel to the war effort. Canada was the major source of nickel during World War II. Germany had no domestic production. The Soviets produced small quantities. The Germans seized a huge bounty from the sucessful invasion and occupation of France (1940). There were thousands of locomotives and rolling stock, weapons stores, and raw material stockpiles. This included nickle. 【Evans, pp. 333-34.】 One of German strategic interests in Finland was the nickle mines in the Pestamo area. Nickle was one of the strategic metals that the Soviets provide to the NAZIs as part of the NAZI-Soviet Pact (1939-41). During the Continuation War (1941-44), German troops German troops moved into Finland to assitv the Finns gaining access to valuable resources, especially the nickel mine at Kolosyoki. Generaloberst Lothar Rendulic, was given command of the 20th Mountain Army and all German troops stationed in Finland and Norway (June 1944). When the Finns exited the War in the East. Hitler ordered him to hold onto the Kolosyoki nickel mines for as long as possible.

Silver

The Reichsmark, was a strong currency, backed in part by silver coinage when Hitler seized power, . Low denomination coins were chganged to reflect NAZI images. Only the silver coins retained the bust of Paul Von Hindenburg, the former Weimar president. One year after the onset of war in 1939, Germany, like many other countries changed the metals in their coins. Coins of 1 through 10 reichspfennigs were made in zinc, the 50 pfennig in aluminium, and all higher coins were discontinued. Coins were also made for use by the military in 1940 and 1941, denominated 5 and 10 pfennig. Silver became important in World War II because of tin and aluminum and other metals for which it served as a substitute. Shortages of copper also contributed to the use of silver. Silver proved vital in the American Manhattan (Nuclear) Project. Germany had a lead in nuclear physics, but Hitler decided derided nuclerat physics as Jewish physics and refused to assign any priority to the German nuclear program. He also drove many top nuclear pysicists (many of whom were Jewish) to the Allies.

Tin

Tin is not often seen as an important strategic material because of the image of the 'tin soldier'. It was, however, of some importance. Tin, along with many other metals, was used for the production of projectiles such as bullets. It was also used in canning, ann important way of providing food to men in the front lines. There were mno aluminum cans at the time. The use of tin packaging for the civilan popultion was greatly reduced by both the Germans and Allies. Tin foil was shreaded and the flakes dropped from aircraft as they entered enemy airspace and caused radar controlled weapons. This was primrily done by the Allies and calld shafe. It confused radar operators as to the number of incoming planes. The major source of tin was Southeast Asia (Malaya and the Dutch East Indies), all of which Japan seixed at the outbreak of the Paciufic War (early 1942). Fortunately for the Allies, there were also important prodyction in Latin America. Tin was a rare metal that the Soviets did not have. Germany produced negligble quantities. The Japanese seizure of Southeast Asia did not aid the Germans. There was no way of shipping tin and other importantr resources to Germany in any quantity. .

Tungsten

Tungsten called wolfram by the Germans was needed to harden steel and produce the alloys needed for machine tools, armor, and artillery. These of course are the core weaponry needed for war. And not only land war, but naval war as well. The only European source at the time was Portugal and Spain. Because Germany did not occupy Portugal and Spain, they had to pay for the tungsten. Shipments of materrial such ass oil from NAZI ally Romania was povided basically free of charge by the Romanians. And because Portugal was the main source, the British began a bidding war. Prices soared. The hrd pressed German war economy could not provide the coal and other material needed by the Portuguese, Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliviera Salazar, demanded payment in gold. And by the time that this became a crisus, Hitler could no longerv enforce his dicttes on Spin snd Portugal. After D-Day (June 1944) the rail links were permntly cut. Meaning that the quality of German armor and other steel products fell. We are not ure hiw this affected tank armor or attillery tubes, but it crtainly imoascted the Germn jets. High quality alloys were needed to deal weith the high temperastures in German engines. Low qwuality steel mean that the engines had to be rebuilt after only a few flights. This significantly impascted the actual combat power tht cold be achieved by this huge technical advance. It was the one German wonder weapons that could have had a major impact.

Uranium

The Germans acquired stocks of uranium when they invaded and occupied Belgium (1940). The Germans had a lead in nuclear physics early in the War--in part because of the work od a Jewish scientuist--Lise Meitner. By the narrowist of margins she escaped the NAZIs (1938). Yhe last of the great jewish scientists to escaspe Germasny. Nuclear phyics was not something that Hitler understood. And NAZI ideology undermined any possibility of Germany winning the atomic race. Leading German scientist Max Plank warned Hirler that if he countunued his campaign against the Jews thst he woulkd disarm Germany in nuclear physivcs. Plank was of course correct. Hitler's anti-semitism drove Jewish and other anti-NAZI scientists to Britain and Amrrica. Many if these brilliant scientuists like Einstein had pacifist orientaions and would not have participated in a bomb program had they not seen first hand the natutre of the NAZI threat. Hitler saw nuclear sciense as 'Jewsish Physics' and was therefore fundamentally opposed to investing huge sums in it. Thus Hitler played a key role in the success of the Manhattan Project. The V-2 capped with s nuclear weapon could have been a-winning weeapon. Capoed with a conventional warhead it was of virtully no military value despite the huge resources devoted to developing it. In true Ameican fashion, when faced wityh the need to choose between a uranium ot plutonioum fshion, the Amrricans deciced to muster the resources to build both.

Zinc

Sources

Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich at War (New York, NY: Penguin, 2008).

Frøland, Hans Otto. Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Hossbach, Friedrich. ' Memorandum' (November 5, 1937). This was the summary prepared by Col. Hossbach , Hitler's Military Adjutant at time. It was a record of a meeting in Berlin on November 5, 1937. Hitler announced his expansionist plans to the NAZI militaryy and vforeign poolicy nleadership. The meeting was a turning point in Hitler's foreign policies which with growing NAZI power had begun to radicalize.

Joy, Oliver. "Bank of England helped sell NAZI gold in 'cold blood'"CNN (Audgust 2, 2013). Joy's report is factually correct, but the title is a good example of the tendency of many modern jouramlists to try to demonize American and British history by twisting facts. In Fact American and British policy kept mosdt of Europe's gold out of NAZI hands.

Speer, Albert. Richard and Clara Winston, trans. Inside the Third Reich (Avon Books: New York, 1970), 734p.

Taber, George M. Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe’s Bullion.

United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS). The Effects of Strategic Bombing on the German War Economy (Overall Economic Effects Division: 1945), 296 p.

U.S. State Department. "Allied Relations and Negotiations With Turkey" (1997-2001).

"Germany," Encyclopedia Britanica (1902).

Created: 8:04 AM 3/12/2024
Last updated: 8:04 AM 3/12/2024