Beginning with the year 1942, the Luftwaffe put special emphasis upon a considerable increase in the number of fighter planes produced each month which at that time amounted to 200 to 220. It was possible, by July of last year, to exceed the figure of one thousand as the norm, in accordance with our program. Then the heavy raids, especially against our armament industry, began first against the preliminary industry [Vorindustrie] in the Ruhr, then against our fighter and airplane industry itself. The enemy enumerated 65 completely destroyed fighter factories and factories producing parts for fighters in his lists. Beginning in the middle of 1942 we undertook extensive evacuations, and did so to small localities above ground, smaller places, and the like. In so doing, about 4½ million square meters of factory space, productive space, were evacuated. That was the maximum that could be accomplished with the means at our disposal. We were lacking in transport space, we were lacking in machine tools, and primarily we were lacking in skilled workers and managerial forces, more of whom are of course needed in a dispersed system of manufacture than in a centralized system. The extraordinary drafting into the Wehrmacht and just at the end also the SE 3-drive deprived the Luftwaffe armament industry of its key personnel. We have in our employ today approximately 60 percent foreigners and 40 percent Germans, whereby one has to take into consideration that the women work in the factories only half a day. Therefore, the ratio of Germans to foreigners becomes considerably more unfavorable. The ratio is gradually approaching 90 percent foreign with 10 percent German supervising them. The rest of the Germans are concentrated in development factories and the like.
The enemy has now adopted a definite plan—as you as soldiers know yourselves and learn constantly from foreign news—of destroying aircraft production first, and mainly the production of fighter planes and night fighters, in order to be able to deal with Germany as he pleases. The enemy believes that this stage has almost been reached now. There is, however, still some confusion in his news reports. One day he expresses his amazement that the German fighter planes did not appear. Then again the newspapers receive a secret directive: “Unpleasant surprises do occur, so do not emphasize so strongly that the enemy has already disappeared from the air.” On the whole, however, the enemy hopes that it has come to the point where Germany’s backbone has been broken or that at least that stage has almost been reached where the enemy has been granted the possibility of dealing with Germany as he pleases.
Another plan our Western enemies have concerns the questions surrounding the concept of the invasion. The invasion and its success would of course also be favorably influenced by a destruction of German anti-air raid defenses.
We of the Luftwaffe armaments have been asking for over a year already that a strong home defense in the air be set up. We have made efforts to establish the prerequisites necessary for this, namely, the providing of sufficient planes to serve as day and night fighters. * * * Being fully aware that the strength of the Luftwaffe alone is insufficient both as regards quotas and with respect to the workers, etc., in order to bring about an extensive change in the field of air armaments, we applied to Minister Speer and his colleagues to undertake a common special effort in this field. The establishment of a Ruhr staff served as an example for us; it was established at the time when the industry in the Ruhr area seemed to be entirely put out of commission by the continuous raids. At that time the Ruhr staff was set up and the necessary quotas, buildings, etc., were put at its disposal. Thereby the entire situation was changed. Minister Speer and his colleagues, fully aware that without air armaments and without air defense the rest of the armament industry would very soon be destroyed and become useless, agreed to this plan enthusiastically and with initiative. Thus it came about that a definite proposal was made to the Reich Marshal and the Fuehrer: the Jaegerstab was created. The order of the Fuehrer provides clearly that the fighter plane program which the Jaegerstab is starting has priority over all other fields of armament, which means, to be sure, that other important armaments are not to be infringed upon by it. * * *
The Jaegerstab is made up as follows: the direction is in the hands of Reich Minister Speer and myself. Deputy for both of us, and at the same time our chief of staff, is Hauptdienstleiter Dipl. Ing. Saur, who is sitting on my left. Saur is the man who carried out the large-scale armament program for the army and the navy in the Speer Ministry in recent years in an exemplary manner. Saur again and again during the past year and a half succeeded in raising the production figures in all important fields and sometimes even in multiplying them.
Further, I name only the leaders of the Jaegerstab. We have put the question of over-all planning in the hands of Dr. Wegener. Construction matters will be directed by Dipl. Ing. Schlempp. The evacuation underground will be in the hands of SS Gruppenfuehrer Kammler. The supply, one of the most essential factors, and everything in the way of semi-manufactured material that comes to our factories for completion, will be taken care of by Director Schaaf, deputy to Staatsrat Dr. Schieber, the chief of the armament supply office [Ruestungslieferungsamt] in Speer’s Ministry. Dr. Schmelter will take care of labor commitment. Sites suitable for dispersal, confiscations, etc., will be in the hands of Ministerialrat Speh of the armaments supply office. Gruppenfuehrer Nagel of the Organization Speer will be in charge of transportation. The supply of power will be in the hands of General Director Fischer. Engineer Lange will be in charge of machinery, Mr. Nobel of repairs. Reich railroad questions will be in the hands of the President of the Reich railroad, Pueckler. Post Office: Oberpostrat Dr. Zerbel. Health matters: Dr. Poschmann. Social welfare: Dr. Birkenholz. Special problems for Me 262 and steel power units: Captain Dr. Krome. Raw materials and quota system: Dr. Stoffregen. Questions of technical simplification, etc.: Oberstabsing. Klinker. Office manager: Petri.
* * * On the spot the individual gentlemen are then told, supported by the combined authority of the state, the Wehrmacht, and the Party, that is, Saur and me—Speer is unfortunately still on sick leave, otherwise he would also be present—what it is all about. That takes ten minutes. After ten minutes the individual members of the Jaegerstab disappear and get together with the men from the factory who are competent for their sphere of activity. Thus, all pertinent questions are dealt with in the conferences about the commitment of labor, and all competent men, who have anything to do with the commitment of labor meet, especially the president of the competent Provincial Labor Office. Thus it is determined on the spot, in the individual spheres, what the factory lacks. If the circumstances require it, it is immediately demonstrated to the factory that their requests are nonsense. Unreasonable demands and excessive claims are revised. Well-founded demands are immediately filled. While the discussions are still going on, telegrams are sent to the different offices, and the people are already set to work. In general, the people arrive in 24 hours. Unfortunately there are exceptions, for which the Wehrmacht sector is responsible. The Wehrmacht does not work as smoothly and beautifully as civilian offices. It is an error to believe that civilian offices are more bureaucratic than military offices. On the basis of my continuous and extensive experience I can assure you exactly the opposite is true.
* * * Our entire German ball-bearing industry, and that outside Germany, was eliminated one hundred percent by the enemy in a, I must say, brilliant attacking operation: Erfurt, Schweinfurt, Frankfurt on the Main, Stuttgart, Italy. We were faced with the question whether without ball bearings we could produce new planes at all, new tanks, or whether we had to capitulate as an armament industry. For ball bearings are an indispensable factor in modern armament industry. One finds and needs them everywhere, even in places where one does not think of them at first. Now it became apparent, thank God, that the branches of the Wehrmacht had hoarded ball bearings and roller bearings in such large masses that we got along for three months with the hoarded material alone. In this case it was lucky that we still had so much, that so many ball bearings had been hoarded. I have to admit that. But that is not the normal way. It is certain that in the whole period up to now too many spare parts have been requested just in order to gather such hoards. And this in spite of the fact that not everything has been attained by far, but only very large stocks. I should like to say that with the material you have, 20 to 30,000 planes could be newly built or newly equipped without further ado. That is how much material you have! And this does not concern large parts; for in that field I was always strict—it concerns rather all the accessories and apparatus. In considering these figures one has to know that about 52 percent of the total man-hours are spent in equipping a plane and only 48 percent in building the aircraft frame and the engine. Only then does one realize fully the importance for us of all that small junk that is lying around all over. It is not necessary that the troops always take along all their spare parts. * * *