Originally Posted by
Brakes...beer
8 876 powerful 88m flak guns (denied to the artillery),
900 000 men to man them (500 000 available to defend Normandy in 1944),
1 000 000 men continually clearing and repairing bomb damage,
factories devoted to producing night fighters,
30% of all artillery in production by 1944... (figures from Robin Neillands' The Bomber War)
Great post B...B. If it wasn't for the bomber offensive allied troops could not have been assured that any aircraft seen or heard on D-day would be theirs. The Luftwaffe was either on the eastern Front or defending the skies over the Reich against the round the clock destruction of their homeland. The sacrifice of these brave men shortened the war, saved Allied lives and made victory possible. So called 'Carpet Bombing' was the inevitable result of the navigational realities of the time. Despite continual technical innovation the average accuracy was no better than within 5 miles by night or 2.5 miles by day. Even so that was enough to constrain production so that it could not rise to meet the challenge from the USA and USSR. If they had been left unmolested to produce the weapons that were only at R&D stage in 1945, the Nazis would have driven us back into the sea, laid waste to the UK and bombarded the US east coast with the ABC agents to hand, as well as stopping the Red Army. High time all this was acknowledged by the award (now sadly mainly posthumously) for the Bomber Command aircrew with their own campaign medal. A scandal that they were not and that this was our earliest encounter with 'PC', by Churchill of all people, after the bombing of Dresden in 1945. War is hell.