Originally Posted by Mike7777777
That conclusion could not be valid (at the time) because the full info re: causes of bomber losses was not available (at the time) eg Schrage Musik
Nevertheless, the decision to remove the turrets would have been the correct one. (you never reach a point where full information is available.) Turret-less Lancs would have flown faster and higher. To suggest that this would have been pointless because eventually a fighter would have come along to catch them isn't much of an argument against. Had the war gone on long enough the German Wasserfall surface to air missile might have come along and it had a projected maximum altitude of 60000ft but that didn't stop designers striving for higher altitudes until the 1960s.
Originally Posted by Mike7777777
Grand Slam was not particularly effective at shortening the war, more an exercise in "Can we build it? Yes we can!"
Really, and what of the other weapons that Barnes Wallace designed, Tallboy and Upkeep? It took a Lanc to lift them. Perhaps you consider the sinking of the Tirpitz, the Operation Crossbow attacks, oh and the Dams raids to have been trivial?
The ability of High Command to delude itself is related by Dr RV Jones in his story of the battle of the beams. Knickebein, etc. In this Jones explains how his first problem was to persuade the British High Command that the Germans actually needed electronic bombing aids. They were convinced, in 1940, that accurate bombing could be done, at night, using conventional techniques. Surely a breathtaking example of hope over experience? Later, of course, Harris still endorsed only area bombing, even though by 1944 617 squadron were capable of such precision as the Saumur tunnel raid:
June - August 1944
Saumur rail tunnel — The sole operational north-south route on the Loire. Nineteen Tallboy-equipped and six conventionally-equipped Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron attacked on the night of 8/9 June 1944. This was the first use of the Tallboy bomb and the line was destroyed — one Tallboy bored through the hillside and exploded in the tunnel about 60 ft (18 m) below, completely blocking it. No aircraft were lost during the raid.