[Six Nifty .50s]

Originally Posted by Josh Osborne

Franek, I have seen this little article floating around is message boards. It uses a lot of selective sourcing and questionable logic. It more of a high school level history paper than a serious source, why do you think it is relevant to this discussion? Can you point to a real published work with original research that makes the point that air power in general and jabos in particular were useless in WWII? Give me break.

You're correct that the Web site article is not very original, and also selective. That essay was obviously inspired by the work of other authors, such as Ian Gooderson in his Air Power at the Battlefront. Although not the first to do so, Gooderson closely examined a number of operational research (OR) reports filed by the British Army and the RAF with regard to air power vs. ground targets. He revealed many consistencies and tendencies, but also urged caution against making too many assumptions based on random samples.

Some years ago I read Montgomery's Scientists: Operational Research in Northwest Europe, edited by Terry Copp. As I recall, it contained excerpts and summaries of some of those reports.