Quote:
Originally Posted by Juha
IMHO Mossie was not nearly as good as a heavy bomber against marshalling yards, one key target type of transport plan, which needed to be saturated with bombs to make them inoperative. Also some sturdy bridges/viaducts were easier to knock down with superheavy bombs, of which only Lancs were able to carry in ETO.
Juha
|
Two points.
1). In his December 1943 report on the Sicilian and Southern Italian railways that persuaded Tedder and Eisenhower to insist on the Transportation Plan over BC's objections, Zuckerman wrote; "The two factors which contributed most to the outcome of the offensive ... were the destruction and damaging of rolling-stock and repair facilities. Largely because of this, the Sicilian and Southern Italian rail systems had become practically paralysed by the end of July 1943 - as a result of attacks on only six railway centres, Naples, Foggia, San Giovanni, Reggio, Messina, Palermo. ..... so too was the finding (unexpected) that the most economic way to disrupt communications was not to cut lines, but to attack large railway centres which contain important repair facilities and large concentrations of locomotives and rolling stock.... The efficiency of a railway system ... appears to fall very rapidly when bombing simultaneously leads to an increase in the calls upon, and a decrease in the capacity of the repair facilities."
2) Zuckerman does not specify the weight of bomb used in paralysing the Sicilian and Southern Italian railway system, but I would be surprised if any bomb larger than the 4,000 lb (1,182kg) bomb was used on that task in mid-1943.
And please remember that this large bomb could be carried by the 54 Mosquito B Mk IVs that were modified by BC with a bulged bomb bay. So I believe the Mosquito was up to fulfilling the Transportation Plan had that aircraft been available in numbers - which it would have been in the absence of BC.
Tony