Pretty sure I posted them here tomo, though IIRC they were graphs (?)
Will see if I can find them on photobucket again.
I see the site supports posts in zip format, might be able to stick the whole things up as zip, disguising the .xls files inside.
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Are the spreadsheets available on-line?
Sure the loss of 8/19 is unsustainable, but it was a special mission so a higher loss rate is to be expected.
From page 413 "the Right of the Line RAF in the European Air War 1939-45"Did theyhave the wherewithall to actually do anything about it when they were being constructed?
The Prime Minister issued a simple instruction. For the next four months, Bomber Command's main operational effort was to be directed against those targets which housed the sources of the threats to British shipping.
The Air Ministry passed on these orders to Bomber Command in a directive dated 9 March 1941. The initial emphasis was on the U-Boat and long-range aircraft threats. The directive repeated Churchill's own words: 'We must take the offensive against the U-boat and the Focke-Wulf wherever we can and whenever we can. The U-boat at sea must be hunted, the U boat in the building yard or in dock must be bombed. The Focke-Wulf, and other bombers employed against our shipping, must be attacked in the air and in their nests. There was a list of targets: Kiel, with three U boat shipbuilding yards. Hamburg, with two yards, Bremen and Vegesack, each with one yard; the cities of Mannheim and Augsburg with their marine diesel engine factories (Augsbrug was soon removed from the list because of its extreme range for the approaching shorter nights,): Dessau and Bremen again with aircraft factories,; Lorient, St Nazaire and Bordeaux with their U boat bases,; the Focke Wulf Kondor airfields at Stavanger in Norway and Merignax near Bordeaux. The Air Ministry did secure one concession; Sir Richard Peirse was allowed to devote a proportion of the operational effort on the old oil targets.
Sir Richard Peirse was not happy to be taken off the strategic bombing of Germany just when he felt that his force was on the verge of potential success in the improving weather of spring
During the moon period of each month, the bombers were to be sent to a ring of targets around the Ruhr - Hamm, Osnabruck, Soest, Schwerte, Cologne, Duisburg and Dusseldorf - the destruction of whose railway installations should isolate the Ruhr and prevent war materials being moved from that large industrial area to Germany's fighting fronts. Inland waterway targets were also listed. On nights with no moon the bombers were directed to attack the general city areas of Cologne, Dusseldorf and Duisburg which, all being situated on the distinctive Rhine, should be the easiest targets to find on dark nights.
The only minor diversion from raids on Germany was the requirement to pay occasional visits to U Boat bases in France and to the German warships in Brest Harbour
In July 1941 Bomber Command had 732 operational bombers. There were 253 Wellington, 40 Halifax, and 24 Stirling bombers, but the other 415 bombers were of types which were phased out by 1943
You gotta start some where and what they were attacking was a poor choice. Remember the UK was hungry and needed supplies of all sorts so its seems to me it would be a priority to safeguard your lines of communications .It's easy to make an argument for attacking this or that target. The problem at the time is there were so many valuable targets and so few bombers to attack them. There was also very little experience about what worked and what didn't, and how much bombing was required to have a decisive effect.
You gotta start some where and what they were attacking was a poor choice.
I agree but it quickly became apparent during thr BoB that it didn't work unless you are of a mind that the Germans didn't have the same fortuitude as the BritsPerhaps but we have to remember that hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Back then many if not most still believed (even on the British side when you might have thought the recent BoB experience would have educated the powers that be otherwise) that you could destroy a populations will to fight erode the popular support of the Gov in charge.
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I've quoted the source giving the number of 732 bombers for the RAF in mid 1941. Seem to me as a force quite able to saturate the target.
That's true with all concrete. I gets about 90% of it's full strenght in about 30 days, when properly cured, and gets stronger the older it gets , if properly cared for.On a side note, I remember being told some time ago that the Germans used a special type of conrete mix for those pens and that the concrete actually became stronger over time, does anyone know if this is just myth or true.