USAAF philopshy of the heavies being able to defend themselfs

[pbfoot]

My opinion only . If Harris should have done what he was supposed to do in bombing POL rather then be ordered to do dragging and kicking , he was a pompous ******* that needed a swift kick in the groin

 

[Glider]

Its a view that I have statred before but I can see the reason for hitting targets the size of cities in the first half of the war, the technology simply didn't exist to do better than that, but once the precision raids on the Rocket base and the Dams had taken place the tactics were available. A switch to precision targets such as POL and similar targets at that time could have paid significant dividends at greatly reduced cost.

 

[drgondog]

I agree with both of you. The US 8th AF didn't match monthly bomb drop tonnage with Bombar Command until Novemeber 1943. Had BC been dropping on Ball bearings and engine factories and POL and sustained the Hydroelectric campaign during 1943 - who knows what the tipping point may have been.

 

[Nikademus]

drgondog, the way it has been described is that the USAAF area bombed precision targets and the RAF precision bombed area targets.

The fact of the matter is that bombing in formation, as the 8th did, resulted in bombs dispersed over an area. If the lead bomber was any good, hopefully the area would be centred on the target.

The 8th did participate in area bombing, but not as often as the RAF.

The effects of Harris' city busting campaign are not immediately obvious. But it did divert a lot of resources into dfending cities at night, prompted the increase in production of flak guns at the expense of other fiield equipment. Just having the air raid sirens go off in the night also disrupted the lives of the public, many of who were in industries helping teh German war effort.

Also, towards the end I believe the 8th basically carpet bombed the synthetic oil plants.

Essentially the case according to Donald Miller. He noted this as a distinct irony. So it was not simply a matter of finding the right choke point and then "precision" bombing it. It was finding the two key choke points and then carpet bombing them repeatedly over and over again with massed bombing raids (to put as many bombs in the general target area as possible) so tha the repair crews couldn't keep up.

In the end it was simple brute strength that won the day. rinse and repeat....repeat and repeat and repeat.