syscom3
Pacific Historian
.... Long range escorts were only effective when accompanied by the Strategic daylight bombing doctrine to draw up the opposing fighter forces - and then effective only if one could defeat the defenders.
I know this is off topic;
Incorrect. A long range fighter can appear anywhere in the German airspace and can hunt and roam as it wants. The presence of P51's and P38's was the beginning of the end for the LW. That's when the attrition really began and unless Germany could replace pilots faster than what the factual record is, they're still going to be defeated.
And consider this; even if their had been no heavy bomber campaign after the late 1943 debacles, the LW will still have to oppose the allied invasion of France and they would still have to run through a gauntlet of thousands of allied fighters which would have eliminated them in June 1944, and not piecemeal from Jan 1944 to May 1944