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IMO of course.
Me-410 Light Bomber.
View attachment 194711
- Small crew size (2 men) who are well protected against light flak.
- Generous size fuel tanks (2,420 liters) provide plenty of range.
- Relatively high cruise speed with payload to shorten time over the most dangerous regions.
- 1,000 kg bomb load which is accurate enough to hit a factory size building.
.....In practical terms this would be a modified Mosquito. If RAF specifications require these capabilities then that's how the British light bomber would be designed. Adding dive brakes, a dive bomber sight and additional armor to the historical Mosquito light bomber should work. And build it out of the aluminum historically used to make heavy bombers.
Fw-187 long range escort fighter.
View attachment 194721
- Plenty of internal fuel (1,100 liters increasing to 1,300 liters for the Fw-187D).
- Excellent aerial performance.
- Plenty of firepower.
What more could a fighter pilot ask for?
Britain has a couple options here.
1. Mustang airframe with Merlin engine.
2. Write Westland Whirlwind specifications so it resembles the Fw-187. Specifically it needs more internal fuel and should be powered by Merlin engines.
.....Critical altitude for the engine(s) would be about 15,000 feet as that's where the bombers will start before diving into the Ruhr Valley.
Make no mistake about it, RAF Bomber Command will still lose plenty of aircraft to both flak and German fighter aircraft. But those losses won't be in vain if Ruhr Valley factories are turned into rubble heaps.
The Mosquito was the answer....and was available from 1942.
Which armies under whose command using their stratagies delivered the knockout punches in 1918?Harris did what he felt he needed to do and should be a hero.
While I reject the 'monster' tag for Harris, I don't think he qualifies as a hero either. He quite deliberately transformed the doctrine of area bombing into dogma, largely, I think, to justify his own messianic boast that area bombing would win the war on its own. It didn't. It couldn't.
I suggest Norris Cole might have been more effective then Bumbler Harris
!
Its also a fact that by 1918, under Haig, the British army was competent in integrated all-arms operations encompassing infantry, artillery, armour and air-power. Under Haig, the British army had the first and only Tank Corp. It had a machine gun corp. It was supported by the largest air force in the world. The artillery corps grew 50 fold. The engineer corps grews 200 fold.
This hardly the handy work of the almost cartoon stereotype bumbling cavalry idiot that most people seem to think Haig was.
Derail over.
you had the channel as your friend and enough of the crap that Britain stood all alonei'm just glad the war started in 1941 as if it started any earlier, say 1939 or so then us inept brits would never have hung on long enough for every one else to come to the rescue !
you had the channel as your friend
Beware of military age French men passing in the opposite direction.Bizarrely this very evening I shall be boarding a train and passing under the Channel in a matter of minutes!
We all know from recent history that democracies can't win unpopular wars - Viet Nam, Iraq2, .... that trend was already building during the Korean UN-Sponsored, US-led 'Police Action'.
MM
Bizarrely this very evening I shall be boarding a train and passing under the Channel in a matter of minutes!
Cheers
Steve
"... The British public's reaction to the Falklands was very telling."
How would you describe that reaction, John. We just hear about Rock Stars and Movie Stars reaction ...
Say more on this, please
MM
"... Its a weird journey under such an historic piece of water in an engineering marvel."
Follow the chalk ...
MM
What about the Mosquito as a precision bombing aircraft for the RAF instead of the heavies?
Quite feasable, though it would need to be converted to metal (as some were) due to limmits in high quality timber supplies. This would allow a daylight offensive in many cases. While the Mosquitos would also eventually need escorts I feel their attrition would be vastly less than the slow 4 engined bombers that were so easy to intercept and spent so long in transit.
Two Mosquito, 4 crew could deliver about as much load as a Lancaster and they could likely do it in daylight with the enormous increase in accuracy that allowed.
Lindemann however was determined to carpet bomb and helped engineer that outcome. It likely prevented development of alternatives.
Bombing the Gussstahlfabrik from an altitude of 3,000 feet is a lot different from flying a Pathfinder Mosquito at 30,000 feet. The "Wooden Wonder" will be exposed to large quantities of radar directed 2cm and 3.7cm light flak. The crew need armor protection similiar to the Me-410 if they are to survive long enough to drop their bombs.
View attachment 194773
March 2/3, 1943
Krupp
6 RAF Mosquitos to the Ruhr without loss. The aircraft which bombed Essen scored direct hits in the middle of the main Krupp factory.
Which may have been fine from 1942 had the war not started (for the British) three years earlier. The philosophy behind the procurement of four engined 'heavies' was already long established by 1942. Switching mid stream would have led to the sort of debacle that plagued the RLM/Luftwaffe.
It's interesting to see the promotion of a twin engined medium bomber for the RAF whilst the absence of a heavy strategic bomber in the Luftwaffe inventory is frequently bemoaned.
Cheers
Steve