WW2 : Weapons, Armies, History, Pictures |
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Important influences on Germany's military production
in World War 2 |
 Important influences on Germany's military production
Several factors had an important influence on the ability of Germany to produce armaments, munitions and military equipment during World War 2.
This includes the dependence on raw materials from the occupied and conquered territories or it's import from neutral countries. Similarly, the Allied bombing offensive resulted in significant losses and forced a costly relocation of production facilities.
Picture: A part of the plant of the Krupp armaments works in Essen after the RAF bombing raids. Apart from the large chimney's is virtuall nothing undestroyed anymore. |
The importance of occupied and neutral countries for strategic raw materials for Germany
Monthly average in 1,000 tonnes for 1943:
| selected, important strategic raw materials |
Greater Germany |
Occupied Territories |
Overall |
Proportion of the occupied territories in % |
| Iron ore (particulary from France and Belgium) |
950.0 |
437.0 |
1,387.0 |
31.5 % |
| Coal |
23,200.0 |
6,400.0 |
29,600.0 |
21.6 % |
| Crude steel (mainly from France) |
2,550.0 |
337.0 |
2,887.0 |
11.7 % |
| Aluminium |
20.8 |
9.7 |
30.5 |
31.8 % |
| Pulp |
5.3 |
14.5 |
19.8 |
73.2 % |
| Total |
26,726.1 |
7,198.2 |
33,924.3 |
21.2 % |
Importance of manganese ore from Ukraine 1941-1943 (in 1,000 tonnes manganese content):
| Half year: |
II/1941 |
I/1942 |
II/1942 |
I/1943 |
II/1943 |
Overall |
| Consumption |
63.8 |
55.7 |
67.4 |
84.1 |
85.8 |
356.8 |
| Imports from Ukraine |
25.5 |
39.0 |
86.7 |
94.8 |
70.0 |
316.1 |
| Share of the imports from Ukraine on consumption in % |
40.0 % |
70.0 % |
128.6 % |
112.7 % |
81.6 % |
88.6 % |
Important raw material imports from neutral countries 1942-1944:
| Country |
raw material |
1942 |
1943 |
1944 |
| Sweden |
Iron ore (in 1,000 tons) |
8,000 |
10,300
(=38%) |
4,500 |
| Pulp (in 1,000 tons) |
174 |
150 |
110 |
| Portugal |
Tin ore (in tonnes) |
649 |
1,236 |
? |
| Tungsten ore (in tonnes) |
611 |
463 |
895 |
| Turkey |
Chrome ore (in tonnes) |
- |
4,950 |
11,700 |
This tables are showing, for example, that such an important strategic raw material like iron ore (for steel production) in 1943 was coming by 42% from Greater Germany, 38% were imported from Sweden and 20% were delivered by the occupied territories. |
 Failures in arms production as results of the Allied bombing offensive
Picture: With enormous efforts were production plants outscoured from the Allied bombing offensive and shifted under the earth - or at least decentralized in remote and distant areas. In this way it was possible to triple the arms production between 1942 to 1944, despite the more than 16-fold increase of the bombs which were dropped in this time.
Selection of the period from October to December 1943:
| Weapon |
Manufacturing |
Failure |
Overall |
Proportion of failure in % |
| StuG assault gun |
909 |
177 |
1,086 |
16.3 % |
| PzKpfw V Panther |
776 |
144 |
920 |
15.6 % |
| PzKpfw VI Tiger |
173 |
79 |
252 |
31.4 % |
| Semi-tracked carriers |
457 |
210 |
667 |
31.5 % |
| 7,5-cm Pak 40 |
645 |
55 |
700 |
7.9 % |
| 8,8-cm-Pak 43/41 |
117 |
63 |
180 |
35.0 % |
| light FH 18/40 |
268 |
32 |
300 |
10.7 % |
| heavy 10-cm gun 18 |
26 |
19 |
45 |
42.2 % |
| Trucks |
11,373 |
2,257 |
13,630 |
16.6 % |
| Overall |
14,744 |
3,036 |
17,780 |
17.1 % |
Selection of Germany cities, based on the few effective and most ineffective bombing attacks in the view of loss of production:
| City |
first 500 tons attack |
total dropped bombs in tons |
Population 1939 |
Population share of Germany in % |
Value of the industrial production in 1,000 Reichsmark (RM 1 = approx. $ 0.45 ) |
Share of the industrial production of Germany in % |
Total production failure in months |
Failure based on the total production of whole Germany |
| Wuppertal |
29.05.1943 |
5,883 |
401,672 |
0.50 % |
77,242 |
0.82 % |
4.4 |
0.30 |
| Dusseldorf |
31.07.1942 |
24,000 |
726,261 |
0.91 % |
153,262 |
1.63 % |
2.2 |
0.30 |
| Dortmund |
04.05.1943 |
17,538 |
542,261 |
0.68 % |
84,866 |
0.90 % |
3.4 |
0.26 |
| Bochum |
13.05.1943 |
11,175 |
305,495 |
0.38 % |
84,820 |
0.90 % |
2.8 |
0.21 |
| Bremen |
22.06.1942 |
13,890 |
450,084 |
0.56 % |
114,132 |
1.22 % |
1.9 |
0.20 |
| Leipzig |
20.10.1943 |
4,764 |
831,615 |
1.07 % |
157,822 |
1.68 % |
1.2 |
0.17 |
| Oberhausen |
14.06.1943 |
3,067 |
191,842 |
0.24 % |
47,785 |
0.51 % |
2.0 |
0.09 |
| Hagen |
01.10.1943 |
4,502 |
151,760 |
0.19 % |
32,082 |
0.34 % |
0.6 |
0.02 |
for comparison: |
| Berlin |
01.03.1943 |
35,000 |
4,338,756 |
5.46 % |
717,251 |
7.41 % |
irrelevant |
irrelevant |
| Stuttgart |
11.03.1943 |
20,822 |
458,429 |
0.57 % |
176,790 |
1.84 % |
irrelevant |
irrelevant |
| Munich |
09.03.1944 |
16,666 |
893,954 |
1.12 % |
161,865 |
1.72 % |
irrelevant |
irrelevant |
| Cologne |
31.05.1942 |
30,679 |
887,724 |
1.11 % |
132,600 |
1.41 % |
irrelevant |
irrelevant |
| Essen |
03.04.1943 |
31,146 |
666,743 |
0.83 % |
113,512 |
1.21 % |
irrelevant |
irrelevant |
| Gelsenkirchen |
25.06.1943 |
8,035 |
317,568 |
0.40 % |
88,667 |
0.95 % |
irrelevant |
irrelevant |
Progress of the bombing war 1940-1945 (in tons of bombs dropped):
| Year: |
1940 |
1941 |
1942 |
1943 |
1944 |
1945
(4 months) |
Total (projected 1945 to a full year) |
| on cities in Germany |
10,000 = 0.4 % |
30,000 = 1.3 % |
40,000 = 1.7 % |
120,000 = 5.1 % |
650,000 = 27.7 % |
500,000 (1,500,000 projected for the year) = 63.8 % |
2,350,000 (actual 1,350,000) |
for comparison: on cities in UK
|
38,844 |
21,858 |
3,260 |
2,298 |
9,151 |
761 (2,283 projected for the year) |
77,694 (actual 76,172) |
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