Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-06-11
Nozis Decree Death
To Spur Production
Labor Shortage. Transportation
Are Killers Weakest Links
BY HUGO SPECK
Int1 News Service staff Correspondent

ton program constitute two
weak links in the Nazi war ma
chine.
With regard TO specific key
materials of war, the Nazis prob
ably have plenty of ordinary fuel
for their tanks. planes, etc, due
10 synthetic processes for making
gasoline from coal.
This gasoline, however, is not of
as efficient a character as the
high octane aviation gas developed
by the United States and Britain.
and there is a very acute shortage
of first-class lubricating oil. The
Nazis have been using all kinds of
substitutes and have even tried
TO redesign their mechanisms of
war so AS TO eliminate as much
necessity for lubricants as pos
sible.
PLENTY OF COAL MINES
There is plenty of coal available
to Germany when the deposits OF
the occupied countries are added
to those of the Reich itself. But
here again the shortage Of labor
is making itself felt in working
these mines - and transport has
been an ever-increasing problem.
The Frankfurter Getting on
March IS cast some light on the
coal problem when it mentioned
plans for transferring miners from
one pit to another and stated:
1.-THE finding and placing OF
worimen Is Mt present bottle
neck In the coal mining indus
tries"
There Is also a shortage of fac
tories and plants. Even after the
important war industry plants in
the occupied countries have been
added to the tremendous facilities
Germany possesses. it is admitted
THAT insufficient means exist for
| the volume of war products needed
by the German war machine.
INDUSTRIES CURTAILED
In order to provide more plants,
two measures have been resorted
to. First, industries not important
to war production either have been
closed or their output greatly re-
duced-in order TO provide more
labor and factories for the manu-
facture of war materials.
Second. the manufacture OF
goods for civilian consumption has
been. transferred to occupied coun-
tries so Germany can concentrate
on ornaments.
Officially little or nothing Is
known of the exact supplies of key
raw materials Germany has on
hand after two years and eight
months of war. Shortages in GER
tain types of metals are known to
exist, but to what extent and ex-
Iactly what they are is a military
secret.
SHORT OF COPPER
To supplement their supplies
the Germans are using Finnish
nickel; Norwegian, French and
Spanish ore; Italian. Hungarian
and Croatian bauxite. and Ru-
manian oil.
They seem to have enough steel
and aluminium, but there are indi-
cations that they are running
short of copper, bronze, nickel,
bauxite and magnesium as well as
certain chemicals.
Coins and even church bells are
being sacrificed to obtain certainl
metals. On February Is 1t was
announced that all two and one
pfennig pieces were 70 be with
drawn from circulation to provide
$3.50 tons of copper.
CHURCH BELLS TAKEN
In March we Americans in
termed at Bad Nauheim watched
three church bells being removed
from a nearby Catholic church in
what was evidently part of a.
countrywide collection in order tol
get bronze.
Late in February 1t was an
nounced that process for sue
cessfully canning condensed milk
in glass jars had been perfected.
"Some 2S,000,00O glass jars
will be used this year for that
purpose, thereby saving 1000
tons OF iron and 1895 tons of
tin," IL was stated.
Tomorrow: Germany'S Trans
port Crisis
T MI klnIl