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I would agree, but the big element in dive bombers' success and failure is established air superiority.
Even with the very experienced pilots the Finns had I'm not sure they had sufficient forces to pull that off. Full strength at the start of the war was about 550 aircraft compared to god knows how many thousands the Soviets had (albeit a large chunk of them committed to stopping Barbarossa). Later in the war they would've had to deal with more advanced Soviet types in numbers. So I think they would've had to field Stukas using unconventional tactics like twilight/dusk raids etc. to avoid losing them, fortunately they were quite good at that kind of warfare but accuracy would've probably suffered as a result.
At the beginning of the the Continuation War FAF had 188 serviceable warplanes on the strength. Soviet AFs had some 2500 warplanes stationed near Finnish borders, not including the 2 fighter divisions intended for the defence of Leningrad or the 2 long range bomber divs. Only about ½ of this force was available against Finland.
I agree.
4,881. Total Ju-87 production.
36,183. Total Il-2 production.
The only thing wrong with the Ju-87 is Germany didn't produce nearly enough. Produce 7.4 times as many and historians would be discussing how decisive it was on every battlefield as well as for short range maritime attack.
Normandy was a relatively small area blanketed by thousands of enemy fighter aircraft. No CAS aircraft can survive in that environment. Throw a hundred A-10 Warthogs into 1944 Normandy and that wouldn't last much longer then Ju-87Ds.
Normandy was a relatively small area blanketed by thousands of enemy fighter aircraft. No CAS aircraft can survive in that environment. Throw a hundred A-10 Warthogs into 1944 Normandy and that wouldn't last much longer then Ju-87Ds.
Me-262 was faster then an A-10. That doesn't help much if hordes of P-51s, Spitfires and P-47s are continually diving on your aircraft.
I agree.
4,881. Total Ju-87 production.
36,183. Total Il-2 production.
The only thing wrong with the Ju-87 is Germany didn't produce nearly enough. Produce 7.4 times as many and historians would be discussing how decisive it was on every battlefield as well as for short range maritime attack.
None...And how many Me262s were over the Normandy beaches?