Re: RE:(was B_5 AFT Arc)Bombers/raiders

Dreaded Cloaking Lurker Mode Off...

Several years ago I heard a theory that the USAF could have had a much
more
dramatic effect in WWII if they had concentrated soley on electricity
power
planets, instead of factories.	In short, the theory said it was a waste
to
bomb factories, because of the large number of targets.  There were
comparatively few electricty plants, therefore each power plant taken
out
could render several factories inoperative.

The big question is, if the USAF had, could the Germans have comeup with
an
alternative means of providing electric power to the factories?  Anyone
out
there now a lot more about electric power generation than me?

ias

> I disagree again, in regards to how big an effect they had. Modern
sources,
> such as the history of the RAF in ww2 "The Right of the line" (sorry
forget
> the author) and such things as the USAFs post war strategic review of
the
> air war over germany show that even with production focused on aa
guns,
> fighters etc, Germany was still producing more tanks and artillery at
the
> end of the war than it was at the start. Bombers, even enmass were
simply
> not precise enough delivery systems to cause the damage to
infrastructure
> that they were supposed to (and the percentage of bombers, night or
day,
> which failed to find their targets along with the imprescision of the
> weapons goes along way to show why thousand bomber raids were required
just
> to stop a ball bearing factory from operating for 24 hours). Strategic
> bombing achieved little but killing civilians. The real cause for
Germany
> losing the war in regard to industry and resources was Hitlers
insistence
on
> mis-using resources on V weapons and ever larger tanks.
>
> I;m not disputing the fact that raiders were used in the 20th century,
just
> that they were no where near as effective as they had been in previous
> centuries.