DROP IN GERMAN PRODUCTION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 2, 28 September 1943, Page 5

DROP IN GERMAN PRODUCTION

Effect Of R.A.F. Raids REPORT BY SWEDISH OBSERVER (Received September 27, 8 p.m,) LONDON, September 27. The R.A.F.'is bracketed with the Red Army as Germany’s public enemy number one, says the Swedish journalist, Gunnar Pihl, who was the last trained observer to leave Germany. In an account of conditions in Germany published in the “Dally Telegraph," he says that production from German war factories this year has fallen from 15 to 20 per cent, short of the peak reached in the autumn of 1941. Workmen at the Blohm and Voss shipyards in Hamburg remained idle because Krupps at Essen could not deliver steel plates for U-boats. Workmen elsewhere complain of the poor quality of tools and delay in the supply of coal, spare parts and raw materials from the Ruhr and the Rhineland. Germany during the winter of 1942 suffered a shortage of tanks. The tank factories in west Germany had been thrown out of gear by bombing. The new 62-ton Tiger tank is only beginning mass production. Showing how long it takes to repair damaged factories, Mr. Pihl cited the Zehlendorf metalworks in southwest Berlin which were badly damaged ou March 1 and repairs to which were not completed by August 23. The R.A.F. that night so badly damaged the factory that it closed down. Mr. Pihl who left Berlin last month, refers to German rocket-guns as already installed on the French Channel coast. They are gigantic, he says, with. 100 ft. barrels and a reputed range of 125 miles. They are intended to bombard London. The rocket travels through the stratosphere and is fitted with wings and rudders. Experiments have shown that the barrel only withstands 25 to 30 shots (ind it takes almost ft week to change barrels.