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Re: RAF and dive-bombing.
Hi Juha,
You are right, of course. Inaccurate fighter-bombers could knock out bridges, and so could Battles and Blenheims. The difference between accurate dive-bombers and these other inaccurate weapon-systems, was efficiency. Gill, quoted above, described how the Vengeance opened his eyes to the efficiency of an accurate weapon-system.
I believe 2TAF stopped even trying to bring down the Wesel bridges because of aircraft and aircrew losses to Flak. On March 2, 1945 2TAF savagely curtailed army support because of these 'unacceptable' losses. The same thing happened to the Fairey Battles in 1940, and in 1918. The difference in 1918 was the decision to fit armour to ground-attack aircraft. The Russians studied the reasons why the British Commonwealth Army beat the Germans in 1918, and applied it, including fitment of armour to ground-attack aircraft. The new RAF decided it didn't do army support and concentrated on Duhet and strategic bombing to the exclusion of ground support. All this is known, and we don't need to re-hash it.
Tony
Tony
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