Saturday I had a humbling experience to walk through and see the city of Schweinfurt from a new perspective.
Growing up I was a huge WWII history nerd. I loved it, learning about history, and especially WWII because I think from an early age I recocognized the scale of a period in our world history that affected so many people and steered the course of where we are today as a nation and as a society.
One of the more nuanced campaigns of the allies in the European theater was their bombing campaign.
The reason I bring this up, is because people would normally think, oh yea, bombing, we just bomb everything and that’s how we win. Just start carpet bombing every square mile.
But this isn’t strategy. In war and in life and in business we have limited resources and limited time and we have to make those resources achieve more effects than than the inherent value they have in a shorter period of time than allotted.
So they knew they had to think outside the box. They had to get creative. They started targeting auxiliary systems of the tank, ie the ball bearings that make the wheels and tracks on a tank move.
The factories for the ball bearings were in Schwienfurt. So the allies wanted to hit them hard and provide a devastating blow to German tank production. . They attacked several times, and paid a heavy price. So did the people of Schweinfurt.
Walking through the streets of Schweinfurt today and seeing where these factories used to be and other key locations used during the war gives you something you can’t get playing a video game or watching a documentary.
So if there’s any takeaways for me this weekend it’s getting out and walking the ground to experience what it was like will always be valued over a simulation. And the power of our ingenuity. We owe it to the people we lead and serve to be constantly innovating and seeing what’s next so we can steer the course towards that next horizon now.
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