In March 1944 the "Plan for Completion of
Combined Bomber Offensive" was put forward which found favour with the British
Ministry of Economic Warfare. The plan proposed attacking "fourteen
synthetic plants and thirteen refineries" of
Nazi Germany.
[15][16][17][18] The plan estimated Axis oil production could be reduced by 50% by bombing—33% below the amount
Nazi Germany needed
[19]—but also included 4 additional priorities: first oil, then fighter and ball bearing production, rubber production, and bomber output. The damage caused by the May 12 and 28
[20] trial bombings of oil targets, as well as the confirmation of the oil facilities' importance and vulnerability from
Ultra intercepts and other intelligence reports, would result in the oil targets becoming the highest priority on September 3, 1944.
[21]
In June 1944, in response to Air Ministry query on resources, Bomber Command staff estimated it would take 32,000 tons of bombs to destroy 10 oil targets in the
Ruhr. Harris agreed to divert spare effort to oil targets. They were deemed to be of such importance that one raid was staged that consisted only of bomb carrying fighters, to rest the bomber crews and surprise the defenders.
[22]
In late summer 1944 the Allies began using reconnaissance photo information to time bombing with the resumption of production at a facility. Even with the weather limitations: "This was the big breakthrough...a plant would be wounded...by successive attacks on its electrical grid—its nervous system—and on its gas and water mains." (author Donald Miller).
[5]:320 However, due to bad fall and winter weather, a "far greater tonnage" was expended on
Transportation Plan targets than oil targets.
[23] The benzol (oil) plant at
Linz in
Austria was bombed on 16 October 1944.
[24]