Text 16895, 69 rader
Skriven 2011-04-15 10:32:48 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
  Kommentar till text 16882 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
Ärende: Re: Mortsel Ertl VII aircraft plant      was: Navigation
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RW>WD> The harbor was not sabotaged at all ... not by the British, nor by
RW>WD> the French. It was in perfect working order except that there was
RW>WD> nothing to be shipped.
 
RW> Wrong. While the Brits and Frogs were in full retreat, the sabotage of
RW> that harbor was an objective carried out very well.
 
When the Allies liberated Antwerp in 1944, much to their surprise, they found a
fully functional sea-harbor with the docks unharmed, the railroad lines in
order, the cranes working and the sealocks undamaged.
 
They cleared the mines in the river and with the last pockets of German
resistance cleared in Zeeland hundreds of kilometers were cut-off from the
supply lines ending the war about a year sooner than anticipated.
 
The only damage to the harbor was by US bombing raids to the GM factory which
had been taken over by the Germans plus the hazard of unexploded bombs in the
docks.
 
RW>WD> "Up river" from Antwerp on the Schelde there is nothing German-like
RW>WD> to ship to.
 
RW> Right, but Germany also occupied the Netherlands and it ended up there.
 
There was no suitable harbor at that time in the Netherlands province of
Zeeland for those kind of loads. Zeeland was a bunch of unconnected islands
then with difficult navigable tidal waters, too dangerous for a barge.
 
RW> It didn't need to, the coal was trucked by rail from wherever it was
RW> mined in Belgium.
 
My dear friend, Belgium had (and probably still has) the best developed
railnetwork in the world. If coal could have been loaded onto a train, then
trucking it by train to Germany direct would be the thing to do ...
 
RW>WD> 2) My dad, after being released as a POW, worked for the railroad
RW>WD> during the war.
 
RW> Un-reliable, as he wasn't privy to anything the Germans wanted to keep
RW> secret.
 
They nevertheless strategically were able to route trains completely wrong,
even transports to the east with Jews.
 
RW>WD> Erla Mortsel was photographed often by scout planes. It's in the
RW>WD> history books too.
 
RW> I would believe Erla VII was photographed by previous bombing flights
RW> of B17s headed to other targets in Germany and France. Unless Belgium or
RW> France had a 'secret' air force that the Germans didn't know about,
RW> flying small craft from Britain that far would be ludicrous.
 
If on May 22nd 1941 a lone Spitfire flew from Scotland to Grimstadfjord near
Bergen (Norway) to photograph the anchorage of Bismarck which in the meantime
had departed, a one way trip of 650km, then a Spitfire could easily fly the
290km from East Anglia to Antwerp/Mortsel. It was done all the time, also in
the case of the Erla raid here BTW.
 
RW>WD> Please look in the mirror to see one.
 
RW> If would have to be a one way mirror to get a view of you in your natural
RW> state of idiocy.
 
Ah, c'mon, you can do better than that. ;-)
 
 \%/@rd

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