Quote:
Originally Posted by CJE
As an afterthought - what would it have mattered if the Germans has built thousands more conventional fighters ? What use would they have been without the fuel to fly them ?
Right.
But let's push the reasonning to its limits.
Had they had thousands more fighters, maybe they would have prevented the 8th AF from shattering their synthetic oil plants?
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Now that you're on the subject of What-Ifs ... I've read a convincing argument that the RAF and USAAF should have instead concentrated more efforts against Germany's power grid. It would have taken comparatively less effort to literally and figuratively turn out the lights on The Third Reich.
The idea was explored at the time, but decision makers guessed incorrectly that Germany had the means and infrastructure to quickly repair power plants. After the war, the bombing survey teams discovered that Germany's national power supply was a much more fragile system than believed. There were many power plants but knocking out just four would have seriously crippled Nazi war industry, and it would have taken several months or more to restore a large power station with serious bomb damage.