SZ/AEAF/5/2/3 - Survey of attacks on the French railway centres, 12/11/44

SZ/AEAF/5/2/3

Item

Survey of attacks on the French railway centres, 12/11/44

1944

10 leaves

Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. Intelligence Division. G.2.
Foord, E. J.recipient

Cover sheet, reference GBI-OI/B/373.11.-3, signed by E.J. Foord and dated 12/11/44. The paper itself is undated and anonymous. Item [SZ/AEAF/5/2/2] is a typescript draft of the paper. Includes an errata slip and two appendices. Appendix A is a table 'List of locomotives and wagons destroyed or damaged at various rail centres in France (based on agents' reports and official documents' and Appendix B is a graph [produced by the RAF Bombing Analysis Unit?] 'Traffic in Region Nord, S.N.C.F., in relation to air attacks January to September, 1944'. The paper is an assessment of the effects of the AEAF offensive against rail targets, drawing on the traffic statistics for the period January - September, 1944 and interviews with SNCF personnel. Reference is made to surveys being undertaken by the RAF Bombing Analysis Unit (BAU).

The paper concludes that attacks on the Region Nord effected "to all intents and purposes, complete paralysis of French economic railway traffic" and "a continuous, although gradual, falling off in German military traffic", the latter also being "considerably disorganised". It considers the level of re-attack to have been heavier than was necessary, probably as a consequence of "under estimating the effects of seemingly moderate damage", a problem judged to be inherent in interpreting small scale air reconnaissance photographs.