[Lonesome in Massachussets]

According to Speer, the Allies bombed one target after another or one industry after another, rather than concentrating on one industry like ball bearings. If the ball bearing facilities would have been bombed every time he rebuilt the facility, the war would have literall ground to a halt in thirty days.

This isn't quite what Speer said. He did point out that while he was fervently arguing in favor of dispersing the ball-bearing industry, the head of RAF Bomber Command was just as strenuously arguing with the Americans against targeting ball bearing factories on the grounds that they must already have been dispersed. BTW, his memoirs were written surreptitiously and smuggled out and not released for years because former Nazis are specifically not allowed to write their memoirs in Spandau.

Speer's reasonable argument to Hitler and the other Nazis was, would you rather try to stop an entire river or one little stream. He then listed the key vulnerable industries and urged to have them dispersed, as they indeed were. It turns out Speer told the Allies nothing they did not already know: The Allied target prioriities more or less matched Speer's list. The difference was that Speer at least took credit for drawing up the list himself, the Allied list was the product of teamwork among many experts and reviewed and discussed by a number of leaders.

In the event, about 10% of Allied raids target the petroleum and synthetic fuels industries and were responsible for about 50% of the reduction in industrial output.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Lonesome in Massachussets! And the reduction in the Reich’s industries through air raids weren’t decisive or crucial, until the Wehrmacht was shattered and German territory reduced via land invasions from all sides.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2601499/posts?page=6#6