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Originally Posted by IceFire
Actually aside from a few key raids the bombing campaigns did little to halt German production. It's almost ironic that the best months of production for Germany were close to the end... in the months leading up to defeat. I don't have the sources readily available but any university library should have the details (that's where I got mine  ). What the bombing campaigns did do was tie up valuable resources in defending against them. So I would speculate that even if the 262 was successful in dealing deadly blows to the 8th Air Force operations the Allies would still have won the long term battle as they were holding up resources that could have been used along the Eastern Front in particular.
I think a Luftwaffe victory in the skies over Germany would only serve to redraw the maps of Europe during the latter half of the 20th Century in favour of the Soviet Union. |
Even after 'Berlin Week', the bombing campaign probably wasn't worth the vast expense. It did allow the UK and US to fight on at a sustainable rate, however. The aero-naval engagements in the Med, Channel and Pacific were ideal for their industrial power and high standards of training.
It's doubtful if those resources would have been better used if committed to an early land invasion. The western allies would have struggled if involved in prolonged intense land fighting. WWII was much more popular than WWI precisely because the UK was spared horrors such as the Somme.
The bombing campaign really came into its own during the campaign against communications in France & Belgium prior to D-Day. That, and the devastating attack on German the refining and synthetic fuel industries, were the crowning achievements of the air war.
German fuel stocks actually rose during the east-front lull in spring '44, but production collapsed after May '44 and stocks were rapidly depleted thereafter.
dduff