Figure 1.-- |
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The President is criticised for not ordering the bombing of the death camps. Here the issue is complicated, but vastly overstated by the Oresidents critics who commonly show a complete lack of understanding of the Air War. The death camps (as opposed to NAZI concentration and sklave labor camps) were builr in Poland, some of them in eastern Poland. They were began to operate in mid-1942. The U.S. 8th Air Fotce only began arriving in England during early 1942 adfter Hitler declared war on America. It was not operational until 1943 abd in 1943 there were no fighter esorts available. Raids into Poland were not feasible. The camps in eastern Poland were beyond he reach of even long range B-17s abd 24s and raids on camps like Auschwitz in western Poland woul have been devestated by Luftwaffe defenses as there were no fighter escorts. So for much of the time the death camps operated, 8th Air Force attacks were not feasible. This changed in 1944 when the P-51s became available in large numbers. But at the sane time Eisenhower insisted on taking control of American and British air forces to support the D-Day Operation. And by that rime the NAZIs had largely succeeded in their undertaking. The one group of Jews that might have been saved was the Hungarian Jews. This is important because the question is usually posed as if American bombing could have prevented the Holocaust or drastically reduced the number of Jews the NAZIs were able to kill. As explained above this was not the case. But was it even feasible to save the Hungarian Jews.
The death camps (as opposed to NAZI concentration and sklave labor camps) were builr in Poland, some of them in eastern Poland. They were began to operate in mid-1942.
The U.S. 8th Air Fotce only began arriving in England during early 1942 adfter Hitler declared war on America. It was not operational until 1943 abd in 1943 there were no fighter esorts available. Raids into Poland were not feasible. The camps in eastern Poland were beyond he reach of even long range B-17s abd 24s and raids on camps like Auschwitz in western Poland woul have been devestated by Luftwaffe defenses as there were no fighter escorts. So for much of the time the death camps operated, 8th Air Force attacks were not feasible.
This changed in 1944 when the P-51s became available in large numbers. But at the sane time Eisenhower insisted on taking control of American and British air forces to support the D-Day Operation. And by that rime the NAZIs had largely succeeded in their undertaking. The one group of Jews that might have been saved was the Hungarian Jews. This is important because the question is usually posed as if American bombing could have prevented the Holocaust or drastically reduced the number of Jews the NAZIs were able to kill. As explained above this was not the case. But was it even feasible to save the Hungarian Jews.
It is true that the 8th Air Force we could have reached Auschwitz in 1944, but the question becomes what would they target. There are several potential targets, including rail lines, fences and guard towers, and the gas chambers. Hitling the rail lines wold not have been effective. There were many lines to Auchwitz and trains can be reouted and repairing the lines was done by slave labor in just a few hours. This would have been extremely wasteful of precious bomber resources needed for other operations such as D-Day. Hiting a narrow rail line from altitude is very difficult. It would have required many planes to accomplish this. And for what? The Germans would have it repaired in a few hours. Another alternative was hitting the fences and guard towers.
Bombing some fences and guard towers would not have been effective, because in the process you would have killed large numbers of the prisoners. Surely you must understand that with 1944 technology that there is no way of hitting guard towers and fences without hitting the bracks. And where would they go? I assume you know that many of not most Poles were not very sympathetic. To be effective you would have to hit the gas chanbers and they were very difficult targets. And even then the NAZIs proved quite capable of killing people without gas chambers.
Many critics failed to understand the limitations of the 8th Air Force. The 8th Air Force was streached and at the outer limit of its range when hitting Berlin with B-17s and 24s. Operations into wester Poland were possible, but there were severe limitations. The President's critics would have us believe that he was not concerned because the operations were to save Jews. The Polish Home Army rose against the NAZIs up in Warsaw (August 1944). Stalin ordered the Red Army to hold back amd not support them. The Allies wanted to drop supplies, but it was just too far. Too many people who write about this subject, do just not understand the 8th Air Force's limited capabilities over Poland. The Allies pleaded with Stalin to allow plains making drops to support the Home Army to refuel in Soviet air fields for the return trip, but he would not permit it.
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