[Kutscha]

If there were no detested heavy bombers (B-17, B-24) and their escorts (P-47, P-51) for the LW fighters to intercept, then these LW fighters would have been available to intercept the Allied dive bombers. The LW fighter force was still a viable force til ~ June 1944, not that after June 1944 it still did not have the capability to inflick losses on the Allies. It was the Allied SBC that put the LW fighter force in a death spiral to oblivion.

No SBC would have put more LW fighters over the battlefield negating the Allied air supremicy over the battlefield making it hard for Allied dive bombers to operate. If there was no SBC, there was no need for the thousands of long range fighters.