It was distinguished by the formal selection of its officers by intelligence and proven merit rather than patronage or wealth, and by the exhaustive and rigorously structured training which its staff officers undertook.
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Upon its return, the 491st concentrated its attacks on strategic objectives in Germany, striking communications centers, oil refineries, storage depots, industrial areas, shipyards, and other targets in such places as Berlin, Hamburg, Kassel, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, Bielefeld, Hanover, and Magdeburg; on one occasion attacked the headquarters of the German General Staff at Zossen, Germany.
German agents monitoring American newspapers wired the compromised secret program to Berlin where Franz Halder, Chief of the German General Staff, realized its critical importance.
Upon the ramp-up of the Nazi program of industrial autarchy that marked the approach of war, Berlin saw that one of its weakest points was the almost complete absence of crude oil production within German borders; this insight coincided with the emergence in both Hitler's Chancellery and the General Staff of a belief in a blitzkrieg war-fighting strategy that centered on Panzer warfare, buttressed by warplanes carrying out tactical air support.
The Ottomans also replaced their top leadership, bringing in the former Chief of the German General Staff, General von Falkenhayn.