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Not to dispute your point Adler, but also the US was not the best during the entire war. At the end (1944-1945) yes, but when the US got involved in 1941 it was lacking in equipment. Their main fighters, the P39 and P40 were a nice planes but hardly a match to the contemporary Spitfire of Messerschmitt. Also the US had a lot of catching up to do in airforce tactics at that time. Luckily they learned fast. So if you're talking about the time from mid 1943 to the end of the war, I would say, yes, the USAAF was the best airforce in almost every aspect (except maybe in the area of jets). They had equipment, that was at least as good as everything the enemy had and they had a lot of it. But not so in 1942.
It's probably hard to say which airforce was best during the entire war. The germans were the best in 1939-1942. The americans after 1943. If I would point out an airforce that was very good during the entire war, it would be the RAF. Maybe they were never the best at any point, but they kept their high standard of modern, competative planes in decent numbers during the entire war, best on average I would say.
I think the USAAF was probably dominate before 1944 SY the production, development and training capabilities was not effected by bombing or lack of materials to anywhere near the extent that most other air forces had been.
Untill the P51's and P38L's came into being, then I would say the LW was slightly better than the USAAF.
Once those fighters began roaming Germany almost at will and systematiclly hunting down the LW, then the ending was clear.
Syscom3,
The B-29 was certainly an up to date design, no doubt, but again it wasn't more advanced than the newest German designs, the He-177 He-277 both being competitive able to carry a larger load (Btw, just like the He-177 the B-29 suffered engine troubles as-well) - and on top of this the Germans were fielding the much more advanced Jet fighters bombers as-well as better more advanced piston engined fighters.
In terms of technology the Germans were well ahead by wars end, and this has been admitted many times by the Allies.
The Allies however possessed a far greater industrial capacity, and could therefore mass produce many able designs in such huge numbers that the German lead in technology was more than made up for.
Take the war on land for example,
P-38L ?? The Germans thought of it as a pig and it didn't do very well against the LW fighters at all - all it did rather well was pound the German ground forces. The P-38 did well as a fighter in the PTO where it was significantly faster than its opponents, in the ETO however it wasn't fast or maneuverable compared to the single seat fighters and it did poorly.
The P-51 proved very important because of its range performance at high alt, the P-38 had no appreciable impact on the war, the P-47 Tempest both did much better.
Lets all just be thankful that the LW didn't get the Me-262 in 1943 as planned, that would've changed the course of the war dramatically.
Adler,
All your pointing out is that the US airforce was the most powerful, not that it was the best - the fact that the LW lacked trained pilots means it wasn't the best by late 1943 and onwards, despite its advantage in aircraft design equipment.
The RAF is infact as strong a candidate in 1944 to 1945 as the USAAF.
As to which special purpose a/c the Allies lacked, well, what equalant special purpose a/c did the allies have compared to the Me-323 Hs-129 for example ?
Spitfire, Tempest, Lancaster, Mustang, C47, Typhone, Mosquito, HalifaxAnd just what did the RAF possess in those years that made them as strong as the USAAF?
Multi-engine tail draggers - their configuration was out of date!Syscom3,
The B-29 was certainly an up to date design, no doubt, but again it wasn't more advanced than the newest German designs, the He-177 He-277 both being competitive able to carry a larger load
Mustang, C47 ????
Adler,
All your pointing out is that the US airforce was the most powerful, not that it was the best - the fact that the LW lacked trained pilots means it wasn't the best by late 1943 and onwards, despite its advantage in aircraft design equipment.
Soren said:As to which special purpose a/c the Allies lacked, well, what equalant special purpose a/c did the allies have compared to the Me-323 Hs-129 for example ?
Multi-engine tail draggers - their configuration was out of date!
The B-29 was light years a head of both aircraft, one of them being nothing more than a prototype
and even with the B-29s teething problems it was still a way more capable aircraft than the 177
and it carried a bigger bomb load than both 177 and 277.
Fire control, pressurization, internal avionics, configuration were all superior to both 177 and 277. Not to say the Germans didn't have better of each, the B-29 just put it all together into one weapons' system that worked and that's what made it superior to both 177 and 277. Besides several hundred B-29s were able to be produced a month with ease, to even say Germany had the capability to produce the 177 or 277 in the numbers the B-29 was being produced is nonsense.Thats incorrect, the He-277 wasn't just a prototype, it was finished well before wars end, the Fighter-defence program made sure both the He-177 -277 didn't see much action though and is the pure reason for the low service record - trained pilots and fuel was missing. And in the few mission carried out escorts were missing.
The B-29 wasn't ahead any way other than having a larger payload.
You're speculating both aircraft "would of" operated as advertised and based on the 177 I find that unlikely.Way more capable ? The He-177 -277 were both structurally more sound and could go just as fast their engine teething problems were solved as-well. And the He-277 had a much higher ceiling, a full 15km, thats just 100m short of the Ta-152H-1's ceiling.
"Would of could of should of" - for that matter "IF" the 177 or 277 made it into significant numbers and deployed in a capacity where they were to be intercepted, then you might of had say a P-58 intercepting them, top speed in excess of 450 mph and specifically designed to take on aircraft like the He 177I'd sure like to see the Allies try to catch the He-277 going 500 + km/h at 15km ! - an impossible task for them. The B-29 on the other hand could easily be intercepted by German fighters.
It was and never deployed in numbers to mean anything...Yes you're actually right about the bomb-load, I got my reference wrong, the B-29 could carry a massive max bomb-load, 20,000 + kg's worth of bombs - the He-277 could carry roughly 20,000 kg's worth of bombs. The He-177 with its ~12,000kg max bomb-load could still carry more than the Lancaster, B-24 B-17 though, plus it was much faster, which is impressive.
All true but don't forget while the B-29 was in gestation the B-29D was being developed which took care of all problems first encountered with the B-29. the B-29D became the B-50...Interestingly the Germans had the Ju-390 that beats all three with a max bomb load of over 26,000 kg !! Range is much longer than all of the above as-well, an incredibly long 6,039 miles ! And despite the huge bombload speed is an impressive 505 km/h and the ceiling 6km with full bomb load. This baby even reached the coast of the US during WW2.. (This could only be done with a very light bombload though)
Or what about the Me-264, with a speed of 560 km/h, a max bomb-load of 23,000 + kg, a range of 6,250 miles, and a service ceiling of 8km with full bomb-load. A very impressive aircraft, although cancelled with the initiation of the Fighter-defence program.