[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Paul, FalkeEins, and Nick,

Paul, you win for being the first to identify the movie as "Command Decision". I remembered it from a long time ago and recently purchased a copy. It was taken from a stage play and definitely had that feel to it in the movie. The movie came out in 1948. Early television drama was shown live from a studio stage and generally had that drawroom feel to it, as did this movie. William Wister Haines, who wrote the book in 1947, juxtapositioned Me 262 production into 1943 when much aircraft production was still centralized. To this, he added the real issue of daylight bombing lacking long range fighter escort and the fact that actual missions in this time frame without protection ended in unacceptable bomber losses. The Me 262, alias the Focke-Schmidt 1, was viewed as a major threat and thus a series of 3 missions to wipe out its production was laid on. Both the first mission to Posenleben and the second mission to Schweinhafen, done back to back, resulted in tremendous losses. To make matters worse, the bombers hit the wrong target and missed Schweinhafen, requiring a repeat run the next day. Enter the big brass fearful of how badly the huge losses would be received back home, with a nosey reporter added in to rub salt into the wound. The third mission, to Fendelhorst, needed to completely wipe out jet production, lay in jeopardy.

FalkeEins, I can assure you that Schabel's book is a must have. As I recall, he discusses the dichotomy of needing KZ labor for production and the stated goal of the final solution to eliminate Jews from Europe.

Nick, you didn't miss much. If you really get curious, you can probably buy it on DVD. It contained some of the poorest writing and hammiest acting I've ever seen.

Getting back to the movie, it was probably instrumental in my desire to know more about Me 262 production. As Haines presented it, it was a fascinating history. I wanted to know more. Haines played with history to dramatic effect, but the real history is just as fascinating, if not more so.

Regards,
Richard