On a long mission to Marienburg in East Prussia, the 8th Air Force achieved a tight concentration of bomb hits on this important assembly plant for the Focke-Wulf 190 single-engine fighter plant. (U.S. Air Force photo)
The Marienburg assembly plant is shown here after it was bombed by the 8th Air Force. Many vital installations were destroyed. Attacks such as this put German aircraft production behind schedule. (U.S. Air Force photo)
Similarly, in our attack on the Focke-Wulf Assembly Plant at Marienburg in East Prussia (October 9, 1943), only 2 out of 100 B-17's were lost. The concentration of bomb bursts on this target was so great that there is sound reason to evaluate this as one of the finest examples of precision bombing to date. The attack was made in daylight from altitudes between 11,000 and 13,500 feet. Several hundred 500 lb. general purpose bombs and 1300 x 100 lb. incendiaries were dropped. Study of reconnaissance photographs has convinced photo interpreters in the United Kingdom that every factory building and all the hangars had been damaged. And this plant had been turning out about one-half (110 per month) of all of Germany's FW-190 fighters.
This report was prepared by the Army Air Forces and is dated Jan. 4, 1944.
