 One small part, one of the thousands of unsung trifles that go into the making of our fighting weapons. The boats, the screws, the clips, the springs, all the gadgets behind the arms that throw their shadows over every great conference, Quebec, Casablanca, London, Washington, and Berlin. This is the biography of one of those fragments, the life and death of a small steel ball. Co-operating with our war department is a group of experts, scientists, economists, businessmen, operatives. It's their job to lay the groundwork for the bombing of the enemy's industrial targets. They must learn all there is to know about the oil from Ploesti and steel from the roar. Guns from Skoda and tanks from Essing, radio electronics from Main Dover, and optics from Vienna, submarines from San Jose and rubber from Hanover. Where to strike with the greatest cost of the enemy at the smallest cost to ourselves? Which of these targets shall we hit and when shall we hit them? Tanks? Guns? Yes, they're on the program with repeat performances on the way. What else? Where is this softest spot? Aircraft assembly plants? Good, but these plants are widely scattered. The destruction of what products, or part of a product, would do most to cripple Nazi power. What product is manufactured in the most concentrated plants? What product, large or small? Two-thirds of Germany's anti-friction bearing industry is concentrated in Schweinfurt on Main. Anti-friction bearings, without which modern war with its demand for lightning speed cannot function. Anti-friction bearings, roller bearings, ball bearings. Nothing spectacular about the ball bearing. It's not as deadly as the German 88, it couldn't do its job without it. It's not as big as the Mark 6, but the Mark 6 couldn't hurl its mile a minute attack without it. 4,000 of them in a dornier, 2,000 of them in a focal bulk 190, 1,000 of them in the controls alone of a Junkers 88. Bearings made with one-twenty-thousandth of an inch tolerance, so dependent on perfection that one faulty ball in a propeller shaft could cause this, small insignificant balls of steel, but essential to everything German or Japanese, American or British, Russian or Chinese, that move, steers and aims and swims in fires and hits in the machines that make the bearings, bearings in the trains that carry the bearings, bearings in the American bombers that must destroy the bearings that turn in Nazi weapons. If I attack the Ruhr industry, when the key to the whole industrial setup is this small part, Schreinfurt not only makes bearings, but makes the machines that make the bearings. Schreinfurt must be so bombed that assembly lines all over Germany will shut down, and when they start up, Schreinfurt must be bombed again. And now what is known about the target itself? The war German industrialists were proud of the catalogues they issued. This can be very useful when you're collecting certain kinds of information. This bird's-eye view of the Varinikter Kugelager Fabrik and works, for instance, or this glorified version of the Kugel Fischer plant. But catalogues stopped when the war broke out. First hand, up-to-date information is necessary now. The files of the Department of Justice are available whenever it's necessary to locate a desired individual. Your name, Kirsten? Mr. Ludwig Kirsten? Ludwig Kirsten. You know, you're a hard man to find. There's a fourth address I've been to. I'm from the Department of Justice. You've asked me no justice. There's nothing to worry about. I believe you can help us if you can arrange to come to Washington. Wilson, Mr. Kirsten. How do you do, Mr. Kirsten? Sit down, please. Thank you. Mr. Kirsten, when were you in Germany last? September 1941. I escaped from a concentration camp in Dachau. When we began 85-90 hours a week to work, we tried to form our old union again. I see. My friends, they shot me this in the dark. What was your job in Schweinfurt? Forming of the heat-treating department in the ball-bearing music. I see. Great. I purchased some figures. Splendid. My little grandson. Oh, you have a grandson, huh? He's an American now. Not one word German he speaks. Only English. You're proud of that. Also, here was the number of machines in my department. It is a two-story brick building right next to the railroad. Oh, yes. You mean down here in this section? That's right. The manufacture of ball bearings requires 12 distinct specialized operations. Damage to one operation could bottleneck the entire production. Refugee Ludwig Kirsten fighting the new order is a valuable man. From other sources, too, target information continues to grow. In London, for instance. Briggs speaking. This is Kerwood. I believe we have a man you'll be interested in. Yes, tomorrow morning at nine at Intelligence Headquarters. Colonel Walters. Oh, thanks. I'll be there. Cigarette, Lieutenant? I'd prefer my own. You were once employed as a sales representative in Berlin, is that right? Selling anti-friction bearings, I believe. I have no obligation to tell you anything. Quite right, Lieutenant. You have no intention of insisting. But since we already know so many things about you... Not half as much as we know about you, English. Including the latest statistics on our production of anti-friction bearings? Yes. One of our new factories alone is turning out double the quantity of your most efficient factories. At least 30,000 pieces a day. I'll admit. You have us beaten at certain things. Your bearing industry is marvelous. Especially the new diesel power equipment that shrines. Isn't that so, Lieutenant? Yes. And that power plant is well-concealed from your fed up the bombers. I have no obligation to tell you anything. Quite right, Lieutenant. You have no intention of insisting. Target information has been steadily growing. Yet certain known objectives must still be located. A strategic bombing mission depends on photo-intelligence. Information concerning the enemy based on the study of aerial photography. Without it, an army is blind. High over Schreinfurt on mine, one clear day, flies a photo reconnaissance plane on a special mission. Central interpretation section, headquarters, Air Force Intelligence. Officers study every detail of the assembled photographs. But several pieces in the complex jigsaw are missing. Here, where the new factory was believed to be located, appears to be a forest. Signs of camouflage gun installations here, but no sign of a suspected airfield near Schreinfurt. You can't do precision bombing without knowing your objectives. There are many ways of learning these things. You were in Schreinfurt? Eight days. My friend hid me in his barn. He walks in the powerhouse of the new factory. His wife is in the inspector. Are the plants working for? Day and night. Thirty thousand bearings to turn out each day. By the way, did your brother come across with you this... He found him. Three weeks ago. It is a picture of Schreinfurt, no? Yes. Here, under a river, is the new factory, camouflaged like a forest. I'll show you. This is the powerhouse. And the aircraft positions you find here... Here? Here? Here? The foundation has been laid for the bombing of Schreinfurt. Now, maps must be prepared. Target overlays made. Bombers ready. Briefed on course. Altitude. Weather. Communications. All the technical wisdom essential to pinpoint bombing. Nazi weapons of war must be destroyed. Must be smashed before they are... Results? The Nazis didn't take close shots of Schreinfurt for us, but it looked like this from where our boy in back said, all bearings are running all over Germany tonight. General Arnold said, Schreinfurt was the fountain head of a first priority German war industry. We have cut down the enemy's tools of war before they can be forged. And should Schreinfurt ever be rebuilt, we shall strike again. Has strategic bombing been worth the price? Is German war industry being curtailed? Here's one of the answers. It's a dug into the hills behind the beaches with all the natural advantages of topography. Lots of American boys were killed. Kids from the south, the middle west, California, New England. We began to advance, held our games. The Luftwaffe offered little fight. Where were the swarms of folk wolves? Where were the measuresmiths? Maybe they never reached the front lines. Maybe they never left Germany. Maybe they never came off the production line because their engines were never delivered. Maybe their engines were never delivered because the ball bearings were missing. Trucks were abandoned in the enemy's retreat and tanks. Maybe they lacked fuel. Maybe the enemy lacked the locomotive to transport the fuel. Maybe he lacked the ball bearings that go into the locomotives that carry the fuel that run the tanks. Battles are ahead. New offensives will soon be struck on a scale undreamed of in history, consuming mountains of equipment and millions of men. Their ultimate destination? The heart of an empire. Will they be successful? Remember the old nursery rhyme. For one of a nail, the shoe was lost. For one of a shoe, the horse was lost. For one of a horse, the rider was lost. For one of a rider, the battle was lost. For one of a battle, the kingdom was lost and all from the want of a horseshoe nail. The small parts that are so vital to the enemy, so vital to us, give us the millions of horseshoe nails that can sweep us to victory. The more than 12,000 separate parts that go into a P38, the 100 separate parts that go into an artillery shell, whether your bench is 6 feet long or a mile, whether your ship has 8 men or 8,000. Give us these parts, these gadgets, these little sub-assemblies, these trifles in the quantities that will speed the day when once more the skill of your hands will be turned to the arts of peace.