Feed your mind: Part III Air Power in WW2

[Archangel85]

4) They never really had it. The skies in southern england were contested, fought over, but air superiority means that the superior nation can dictate when and how to engage the enemy. The Germans never could do so. Most notable for this is the lack of fuel (if there was aircombat over 5 minutes, most planes would not make it home, shoot down or not), the fact that pilots could not just get into the next plane and take of again (kinda hard from a british POW camp...) and the brilliant decision to decide that the RAF was finished when it wasn't.

5)The P47 as the definition of a multirole fighter. The Me 109 for staying on the allied heels the entire war.

6) Good question. Wishful thinking, for one ("the plane is so small, and this battleship is soooooooo huge..no way"). Grossly overestiminating the effects of own AA fire (the Bismarck claimed no less then 40 planes shoot down).

10) I know that the daybombing over Europe had approx 6-10% of casulties per sortie, night bombing 4-6% (usually).

 

[Archangel85]

3) Discuss Strategic bombing and its success or failures
I think the best example here is of the ball-bearing campaign against Germany which nearly crippled their production capability.

...for about two weeks. Generally, the germans could repair bomb damage pretty quickly, or bring other facilities on-line. The ball bearing campaign was one hughe failure...the oil-plan was much much more effective, that really crippeled the ability to wage war. Without it, the Luftwaffe could still have contested the allied airforce in late 1944, the ardennes offensive would have had much much higher chances of success etc...