Nazi/Vichy destruction of Parisian statues

Discussion in 'France' started by von Poop, Mar 24, 2016.

  1. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Owen, Tricky Dicky and Rich Payne like this.
  2. TriciaF

    TriciaF Junior Member

  3. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The Third Reich ransacked every territory they occupied from foodstocks,faming output and raw materials.I would think that any statues failed their ideological assessment would be recycled.

    The regime was desperately short of metals such as copper which are required in the manufacture of heavy electrical and light current apparatus,essential for the war economy.In the Unoccupied Zone,the collaboratist Vichy Government introduced a policy whereby each householder was directed to recover/recycle a weight, I think, of 2 kgs of copper per month for the war effort.I am not aware how effective this direction was.

    I remember seeing an indication of the shortage of copper in France. In Normandy on the ground above Arromanches I noticed a concrete plinth which had been used for mounting electrical apparatus but far more interestingly was that the earth strap, still there but it was composed of mild steel rather than than the conventional copper which has a much higher conductivity property than mild steel.
     
  4. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

  5. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Adam beat you to it in March.
    :frflag[1]:
     
  6. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Opps. I thought it looked familiar.
     
  7. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Far more important copper is a component of brass used for cartridge cases and bronze used for bearings. Shortage of copper was a major problem for Germany in both world wars. For millennia Sweden had been the main source for most of continental Europe but by WW2 Sweden could barely produce enough ore for its own domestic needs. The most abundant sources in the World were in various parts of the British Empire (eg Rhodesia). Germany could get copper from the Balkans (which influenced Hitler's policy) but there was a heavy reliance on recycling
     
  8. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    One of the reasons that Hitler invaded Norway was to ensure that the British would not interfere Swedish iron ore exports to Germany.However Hitler had no territorial plans for the Baltic until the New Year of 1940.His intention was to keep the Baltic open for German shipping,envisaged by the neutrality of Norway,Sweden and Finland.Through this policy,Hitler saw Scandinavia as a source for raw materials to contribute to the German war economy.Admiral Raedar had a different approach in his thinking.He proposed in October 1939 that Germany should seize Norwegian bases in order to increase the Kreigsmarine's ability to attack British sea routes which probably was thinking derived from the Hossbach Conference of November 1937.

    GB on the other hand had an initial plan for General Pierse Mackesy to seize Narvik with a force of three divisions, simultaneous with landings at Trondheim,Bergen and at Stravanger. This in addition to the Churchill plan,Operation Wilfred, to mine Norwegian waters irrespective of Norway's acceptance.Churchill went further and pressed Chamberlain to also invade Sweden.All this was to ensure that Germany was denied the Swedish Gallivare ore fields in the Gulf of Bothnia by the Mackesy force occupying Narvik which was the port of ore exports from Sweden when the Gulf of Bothnia was iced over.The problem was that there was no road connection between Narvik and the Swedish frontier which would have posed a difficulty for the advance into Sweden.Furthermore the connection between the two locations was by electrified rail which raised the risk that the Swedes would disconnect the power supply in the conflict

    These plans were hammered out over a highly contested War Cabinet Meeting on 12 May 1940 after Chamberlain had declared in his over confident view of the dynamic situation on 5 April 1940 as...."Hitler has missed the bus". The failure of the Norwegian campaign result in Chamberlain stepping down for Churchill.

    It is well known that Sweden traded with both sides during the war but recently there has been deeper interest by Swedish historians as to the depth of war economy cooperation between Sweden and Germany.
     
  9. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    Sweden supplied Germany with very large amounts of iron ore but also significant volumes of ball bearings which obviated USAAF attempts to cripple German industry by bombing the ball bearing factories. Food was another important item - both food produced in Sweden and luxury items imported into Sweden - that's how the likes of Goring got their morning coffee whilst everybody else had to make do with chicory and ground acorns.
    Sweden also exported ball bearings to Britain but in very small quantities due to the problems of getting them there. Purchases were limited to very high precision BBs and these were got out in two ways. High speed MGBs were civilianised to allow them to be treated as merchant shipping and they did a number of high speed night runs down the Baltic. Other loads were flown out in Mosquitoes operated by BOAC.
     

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