Nilgiri
BANNED
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2015
- Messages
- 24,797
- Reaction score
- 81
- Country
- Location
I'm talking only heavy bombers bud (crucial in longer wars and sustained campaigns). Medium and light bombers were well represented in the luftwaffe, esp at its prime...Londoners and Brits faced their unadulterated wrath for a good 2 years.
Problem with medium and light bombers long term (no matter how good at their intended role they may be) is they dont carry the self-protection armament to defend themselves even in massive air convoys from an adversary that you havent knocked out in 1 - 2 years (and thus will have a sizeable airforce with fighters etc..)...and neither do they carry the payload that packs enough punch per aircraft so that accuracy in honestly vicious air warfare situations becomes less important.
Thats why the Germans operationally (and then physically) literally ran out of bombers starting half way through the war.
They couldnt bomb Stalingrad's enemy logistics and concentrations effectively at all (given no heavy bombers and med/light bombers simply suffered terrible attrition rates) ...to back up that massive army they commited there...and their own supply lines were made exposed and tenuous by the soviets with time as a result. When in doubt, you always want to bomb the hell out of your enemy when you have committed that much to something....and the wehrmacht simply couldnt. Or I guess don't overextend beyond what your airforce can deliver (and give more time and thus resources for them so they can eventually do so), but I guess hindsight is 20/20. Hitler started barbarossa at least 1 year too early in my opinion. Several components were lacking for long term war (esp heavy bombers), but he had a gut feeling and gambled that he could finish russia quickly. Simply didn't work out.
