Originally Posted by
POBJOY
Whilst its 'interesting' debating the (pro's and cons ) of equipment design, what is far more important is having it available in sufficient numbers to be of use when required. In WW2 the Germans produced two quite outstanding piston fighters that also had engines to match. This is to be expected from the beligerent side as they had planned their requirements beforehand, and we were to a degree always trying to catch up. Of course what they did not plan for was for the war to go on for so long, and then have to contend with the might of the American production effort. Sydney Camm knew his Hurricane could be improved with a thinner wing, however had they tried to do this rather than produce hundreds of 'adequate' machines for the purpose of shooting down bombers, we would not have had enough fighters to defend the country in 1940,and that would have been the end of it. As it was the Hurricane went on to pioneer many other uses in the ground attack role, whilst the Spitfire was better able to be improved to provide the interceptor role. An attacking force has many advantages, but they are also subject to the 'mistake factor' which in itself can dramatically alter events. We were not immune to making mistakes but made less of them when it mattered. The events of 1940 are all important because had we failed then, the machines that came later would not have happened. It took quite some time for the allies to accept that our bombers would be very vulnerable without fighter escort, yet the Germans had learned this lesson the hard way in 1940. We were also vulnerable in only having one fighter engine which also went on to power our later bomber force, and had the Germans realised the importance of that engine I suspect Derby would have been flattened very early on, indeed SH readily admits he was amazed it wasn't.
It is no surprise to me that the Germans did not bomb Derby. They expected to win the war with the UK very quickly, and then take over the assets of the losers. The Rolls-Royce factories would have been very useful, if not essential, to their aim to rule the World. By the time it became obvious that this was not going to be the case, it was too late. I spent most of WWII living about three miles from the R-R factories in Glasgow. It was a wonder to us that night after night while Clydebank was being bombed, never a bomb dropped anywhere near us.
One bomb did land on Derby, but it missed the factory. It was most probably jettisoned by some aircraft being chased by fighters.