Abstract
There are millions of aerial photographs from the period of the Second Wold War available in the Allied archives, obtained by aerial photo reconnaissance, covering most of today’s European countries. They are spanning the time from 1938 until the end of the war and even beyond. Photo reconnaissance provided intelligence information for the Allied headquarters and accompanied the bombing offensive against the German homeland and the occupied territories. <br><br> One of the initial principal targets in Bohemia were the synthetized fuel works STW AG (Sudetenländische Treibstoffwerke AG) in Zaluzi (formerly Maltheuren) near Most (formerly Brück), Czech Republic. The STW AG synthetized fuel plant was not only subject to bombing raids, but a subject to quite intensive photo reconnaissance, too - long before the start of the bombing campaign. With a multi-temporal analysis of the available imagery from international archives we will demonstrate the factory build-up during 1942 and 1943, the effects of the bombing raids in 1944 and the struggle to keep the plant working in the last year of the war. Furthermore we would like to show the impact the bombings have today, in form of potential unexploded ordnance in the adjacent area of the open cast mines.
Highlights
One of the initial principal targets in Bohemia were the synthetized fuel works STW AG (Sudetenländische Treibstoffwerke AG) in Zaluzi near Most, Czech Republic
The plant construction was inaugurated in May 1939 and after three years of construction the factory commenced producing synthetized fuel oil made from brown coal extracted in open-cast mines in the vicinity
On the 12th May 1944 the works were subject to heavy bombing claiming many casualties among factory workers, and among inhabitants of the surrounding settlements, including prisoners of war imprisoned in the neighbouring POW camps
Summary
German strategy during the Second World War was based on fast moving units with rather long support transfer lines On the 12th May 1944 the works were subject to heavy bombing claiming many casualties among factory workers, and among inhabitants of the surrounding settlements, including prisoners of war imprisoned in the neighbouring POW camps. First the local (German) workforce was acquired, for which an intensive social program was planned, e.g. new settlements for up to 25,000 people As this source got exhausted by the military claiming parts of the German labourers, workers were obtained from occupied territories. At first this was achieved by voluntary recruitment based on promises of above-average incomes.
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