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In clear air over California, the Norden sight could indeed hit targets with extradonary precious, but…
Yes, fuel tanks were checked when you came back to catch out the ones who would fly out over the North Sea and circle until near home time and head back.
Ditto 'aborted mission due to < x > problem' - the CO would ask to see the engineers report.
Eventually, all bombers were fitted with a photoflash that captured a picture of your bomb drop over the target to catch out the ones bombing en countryside.
Once the RAF had refined their Pathfinder force, the main force was bombing targets with very good accuracy by night
The RAF flew quite a few heavy bomber daylight missions in direct support of ground troops after 6 Jun 1944. In at least one case a daylight mission to the Cherbourg area was escorted by Mossies. Later in the war the RAF heavies flew quite a few daylight missions.
After the daylight missions in support of the ground troops in Normandy, Bomber Command flew 153 daylight raids between 27 Aug 1944 and 24 April 1945. See the attached article for a review of the effects of those raids.The RAF flew quite a few heavy bomber daylight missions in direct support of ground troops after 6 Jun 1944. In at least one case a daylight mission to the Cherbourg area was escorted by Mossies. Later in the war the RAF heavies flew quite a few daylight missions.
In fact the RAF started flying Mustang III tactical missions over France in early in 1944. They could have flown escorts.
I thought they ate elderberries... and married hamsters.Blueberry eating vampires.
And even some British analysis have pointed out that the USAAF daylight raids were far more effective than the RAF night attacks because, regardless of the actual industrial damage done, they destroyed the Luftwaffe..
Yeah, well, you see, the Luftwaffe came up to intercept the bombers.Well, fighters destroyed the Luftwaffe. Not the bombers, regardless of their effectiveness.
Well, fighters destroyed the Luftwaffe. Not the bombers, regardless of their effectiveness.
Depriving the Luftwaffe of vitally needed aviation fuel certainly helped.
Most of that happened after the Luftwaffe was mostly destroyed.
Most of that happened after the Luftwaffe was mostly destroyed.
No not quit. The Luftwaffe was made ineffective by the lack of fuel. The fuel shortage was so severe, that the training of new pilots was impossible, the aircrafts were not taxing to the runway but toed, the acceptance flights of new aircrafts were grinding to a hold. The aircraft production went on to the very end!Well, fighters destroyed the Luftwaffe. Not the bombers, regardless of their effectiveness.
I think you are a bit off here. The fuel for the jets (J2) was in fact in short supply if you read official government documents. In fact so that the jets were towed to the runway not to use fuel for taxing. Also the test flights of the new and rebuild jets were hampered by fuel shortages.Their jets were not out of fuel, but they had too little nickel to build jet engines that lasted more than 25 hours or so. When the USAAF and RAF captured the German jets at the end of the war, they found that the records on how many hours were on each engine had been destroyed, making cranking the airplanes up and flying them a bit dicey.
I read Middlebrook's Regensburg book 20 years ago and it's not in my library. Did they hit the factory or just the field?I'm reading Middlebrook's book about the Schweinfurt/Regensburg fiasco, and it has one pic that is stunning -- the bombs hitting the test field at the Regensburg factory are packed so tight that for a few hundred yards there is no ground visible at all, only explosions. A truly amazing concentration of ordnance.
ETA: here's the pic, though not from the book as the caption is not Middlebrook's:
View attachment 703195
In "The Destruction of Dresden" by Avid Irving (1963), the author reviews the British night bombing strategy and implimentation that led up to that raid. He passes on some information that is not brought up by others. For example, we are so used to the way American bomber raids were organized and carried out that we skip over the RAF ways. For example - night bombers were given the target and suggested flight paths, then each bomber took off on its own to find that target, hopefully designated by colored flares dropped by pathfinders who flew in while there was still some daylight, or twilight. They did not fly in formation and rarely saw another bomber in their group unless the moon was out. Often they would just see the flames as another bomber went down. This made it difficult to report back on who's plane they saw go down.
RAF crews had a derogotory name for planes that went out in the dark, dumped their bombs (not on the target) and came back. They were called Rabbits. The first serious bombing survey done by the RAF showed remarkably small amount of bombs were dropped even within 5 miles of the target.
Also, German hospitals were marked with blue lights on the roof.
...night bombers were given the target and suggested flight paths, then each bomber took off on its own to find that target, hopefully designated by colored flares dropped by pathfinders who flew in while there was still some daylight, or twilight...
This photo shows the raid on the Messerschmitt aircraft plant at Regensburg Prüfening, at noon on 17th August 1943. Prüfening is just over a mile due west of the Regensburg Innenstadt, or Centre. Around 400 people were killed on the ground. Aircraft production was stopped for a short period, although I don't know how long production stopped or the lost production figures.I'm reading Middlebrook's book about the Schweinfurt/Regensburg fiasco, and it has one pic that is stunning -- the bombs hitting the test field at the Regensburg factory are packed so tight that for a few hundred yards there is no ground visible at all, only explosions. A truly amazing concentration of ordnance.
ETA: here's the pic, though not from the book as the caption is not Middlebrook's:
View attachment 703195