WI: Strategic Bombing of Nazi Power Plants

US Strategic Bombing Survey said:
The German power system, except for isolated raids, was never a target during the air war. An attack was extensively debated during the course of the war. It was not undertaken partly because it was believed that the German power grid was highly developed and that losses in one area could be compensated by switching power from another. This assumption, detailed investigation by the Survey has established, was incorrect.

The German electric power situation was in fact in a precarious condition from the beginning of the war and became more precarious as the war progressed; this fact is confirmed by statements of a large number of German officials, by confidential memoranda of the National Load Dispatcher, and secret minutes of the Central Planning Committee. Fears that their extreme vulnerability would be discovered were fully discussed in these minutes.

The destruction of five large generating stations in Germany would have caused a capacity loss of 1.8 million kw. or 8 percent of the total capacity, both public and private. The destruction of 45 plants of 100,000 kw. or larger would have caused a loss of about 8,000,000 kw. or almost 40 percent, and the destruction of a total of 95 plants of 50,000 kw. or larger would have eliminated over one-half of the entire generating capacity of the country. The shortage was sufficiently critical so that any considerable loss of output would have directly affected essential war production, and the destruction of any substantial amount would have had serious results.

Generating and distributing facilities were relatively vulnerable and their recuperation was difficult and time consuming. Had electric generating plants and substations been made primary targets as soon as they could have been brought within range of Allied attacks, the evidence indicates that their destruction would have had serious effects on Germany's war production.

http://www.anesi.com/ussbs02.htm#ep

What then would be the effect of the USAAF and/or the RAF attacking these power plants from an early stage of the war (August 1943 for instance if only the USAAF)?
 

hammo1j

Donor
This is one of the perennial what-ifs of WWII - whether allied bombing could have been better directed. The most common accusation and justifiable too is that Synthetic Oil could have been more attacked. I started a thread recently on that topic.

Certainly power stations were a primary target of Gulf I and II and thus can be confirmed as strategically very important. The question is did WWII BC and 8AF have the tools to take the generators out? IIRC there was a plan to use specially designed bombs to short out the generators.

Certainly the 8AF had its Norden bomb sight and BC had low level marking. Hitting a precision target required that a 1-2% fraction of the bombs hit the target from several hundred tonnes actually dropped so I think this would have been do-able.
 
What then would be the effect of the USAAF and/or the RAF attacking these power plants from an early stage of the war (August 1943 for instance if only the USAAF)?


...

Certainly power stations were a primary target of Gulf I and II and thus can be confirmed as strategically very important. The question is did WWII BC and 8AF have the tools to take the generators out? IIRC there was a plan to use specially designed bombs to short out the generators.

Certainly the 8AF had its Norden bomb sight and BC had low level marking. Hitting a precision target required that a 1-2% fraction of the bombs hit the target from several hundred tonnes actually dropped so I think this would have been do-able.

I can't believe no-one has mentioned the Dambuster Raids. The whole purpose of those was to knock out the big hydroelectric dams in the Ruhr area, and so cripple vital industries.

Now, if those raids had achieved all three main objectives - taking out the Moehne, Eder, and Sorpe dams - the level of destruction and disruption would have been even greater, and power stations could well have been focused on far more. This would naturally make use of the experience of 617 Squadron in precision bombing - as in fact happened in OTL, with their use of the Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs.

Now, I realise you really wanted the effects, rather than 'how could this have happened?'
The effects seem rather obvious - German industry would be greatly inconvenienced and, beyond a certain point, critically wounded. Without reliable power, the war machine would (to use a cliche) have ground to a halt.
 
German armaments production would've been shut down or severely reduced. The war in Europe would've ended sooner.
 
If they are well defended, when do we attack them? In the morning the bombers would get killed. In the night there is a high chance the bombers would miss.
 
Top