Holocaust- Bomb The Tracks?

[Bengalzona]

There were different types of bombing going on: strategic bombing, tactical bombing and close air support. Strategic bombing was the huge formations of B17's, B-29's, Lancasters, etc. dropping massive payloads on factories and cities (what we generally think of when we think of WWII bombing). There was also tactical bombing, smaller formations of B-24's, B-25's, Betty's, etc. bombing smaller targets. Close air support was usually conducted by small and fast attack planes (Mosquito, Il-2 Sturmovik, A-20, Stuka's, etc.) or sometimes fighter aircraft fitted with bombs and/or rockets for the role.

Each type of bombing had different priority targets. The strategic bombers were designed to fly deep into enemy territory at high altitudes carrying huge payloads. Their primary targets were the enemy's war industries and strategic supply reserves and networks. As part of the supply networks, they would bomb rail lines. But because of the high altitudes they were at, the small size of individual rail lines, and the large payloads they were carrying, they concentrated on bombing railways centers and marshaling yards (things they could spot from that high).

Tactical bombers had similar missions, but within a more limited range. Because of the size of their formations (necessary for defense), using a formation to target a single rail line was seen as overkill and a waste. While we had a lot of resources, we also had to ship them over an ocean. So, we couldn't really afford a lot of waste. A lot of times, tactical bombers would be used against rail yards or rail bridges.

The job of attacking individual rail lines was usually left to the close air support aircraft. They would fly in small squadrons (sometimes only two) and strafe and/or bomb smaller targets. But the prime mission of these aircraft was attacking enemy tank and artillery units. Rail lines were a secondary mission. This was particularly true among the Soviet air force. And when they did attack, the attack planes were looking for trains on the tracks to hit rather than the line itself. The reason for that is because armies on the offensive generally like to seize existing tracks when and where they can in order to use them to ship their own supplies.

There was also the question of intelligence information. Reports of abuses of prisoners had been received by the allies for several years. But our soldiers were pretty darn surprised when they actually came upon the camps and saw what had been going on. And that was in the spring of 1945, shortly before the war in Europe ended. They just did not know the extent to how bad things were until they saw it on the ground. Also, the train shipments were infrequent and they did not have good intel on where trains where heading and with what cargo. Additionally, the SS were pretty close-mouthed even among the German people about when concentration camp prisoners were being shipped. Most of them were shipped in rural areas and secondary rail lines to avoid questions.

As Storer noted above, most of the concentration and death camps were in the east. Our strategic bombers had the range to get to them, but they wouldn't have been able to pinpoint them. Also, dropping that many bombs for one rail line in the country surely would have been considered excessive. To boot, they didn't even know the concentration camp prisoners would be shuffled on any particular line.

I'd like to think that, if we had known sooner and if we would have had better intell on the ground, we would have tried to shut down the lines. But as a military man, I sense that even if those conditions did exist, they still would have stuck to their priority targets in order to win the war faster.