WorkinStiff
Airman
....In the end, it didn't matter, the increased production in tanks and planes and ball bearings didn't count for squat...For without fuel to power them trains to transport them to the front, they were USELESS!!...They produced some 2500 me-262s....Less then 500 saw combat, (lucky for us!!)...The rest made wonderfull targets for allied fighter-bombers as they sat, fuelless and pilotless, on their tarmacks.....
......I recall reading the account of a grizzled ground vet who'd fought his way, ( with the Big Red One), across N Africa, Sicily and France......He said that he finally realized that we were going to win when he got to France and saw the Germans doing all their transport by horse and donkey cart....The Krauts were out of fuel and it was only a matter of time before they were finished....
......So let's look at what the widely criticized AAF daylight campaign really accomplished:
...........It destroyed the German oil industry...Once that was accomplished Germany was finished.....
.....It destroyed the rail system......
......It played the major role in the utter destruction of the Luftwaffe and it's cadre of experienced pilots.....
.......It caused Speer to hide and dispurse his industry making it less efficeint and hindering production.....
.......Some secondary benefits:
.....Some 10,000 88mm batteries were kept home to defend the fatherland from both day night raids..( There were some 1100 around the giant oil refinery at Merseburg alone),.That's 10K LESS artillary pieces raining shells down on Brit, Yank and Russian troops......
.......Numerous fighter squadrons were withdrawan fron Norway, The Med and the Russian front in the futile attempt to stop the B-17s and B-24s....This allowed the Soviet AF to wrest control of the air from the Luftwaffe and allowed the Storomovicks to slaughter the panzers....( See how nothing occurs in a vacuum?....How would the war have turned out if those nazi fighter squadrons stayed deployed on the Eastern front, keeping the Soviet ground attck squadrons ineffective...What difference would those 10K 88 batteries made if deployed to Normandy, Italy and the Russian Front?)
....So You Seeee!,as modern historians are discovering, when judging the effectiveness of the US strategic bombing campaign, it pays to dig deeper then; " Well! They were producing more ball bearings in 45 then in 41, so the bombing campaign was OBVIOUSLY a failure!"......
......I recall reading the account of a grizzled ground vet who'd fought his way, ( with the Big Red One), across N Africa, Sicily and France......He said that he finally realized that we were going to win when he got to France and saw the Germans doing all their transport by horse and donkey cart....The Krauts were out of fuel and it was only a matter of time before they were finished....
......So let's look at what the widely criticized AAF daylight campaign really accomplished:
...........It destroyed the German oil industry...Once that was accomplished Germany was finished.....
.....It destroyed the rail system......
......It played the major role in the utter destruction of the Luftwaffe and it's cadre of experienced pilots.....
.......It caused Speer to hide and dispurse his industry making it less efficeint and hindering production.....
.......Some secondary benefits:
.....Some 10,000 88mm batteries were kept home to defend the fatherland from both day night raids..( There were some 1100 around the giant oil refinery at Merseburg alone),.That's 10K LESS artillary pieces raining shells down on Brit, Yank and Russian troops......
.......Numerous fighter squadrons were withdrawan fron Norway, The Med and the Russian front in the futile attempt to stop the B-17s and B-24s....This allowed the Soviet AF to wrest control of the air from the Luftwaffe and allowed the Storomovicks to slaughter the panzers....( See how nothing occurs in a vacuum?....How would the war have turned out if those nazi fighter squadrons stayed deployed on the Eastern front, keeping the Soviet ground attck squadrons ineffective...What difference would those 10K 88 batteries made if deployed to Normandy, Italy and the Russian Front?)
....So You Seeee!,as modern historians are discovering, when judging the effectiveness of the US strategic bombing campaign, it pays to dig deeper then; " Well! They were producing more ball bearings in 45 then in 41, so the bombing campaign was OBVIOUSLY a failure!"......
