Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Beale
I say that Bomber Command was ill-prepared to conduct the war it had dreamed of fighting since, according to Hastings, it appears not to have tested the concept in any meaningful way
|
You say 'ill-prepared'. The mot juste is 'incompetent'. The RAF had failed to test the software 'concept', but hadn't tested the hardware either. Example: the bombs with 11-second fuses dropped on the Admiral Scheer on September 4, 1939 at great cost by Blenheims failed to explode because they hadn't been tested. Example: the Wellingtons had no self-sealing petrol tanks and no waist gunners; etc.
But putting aside semantics, we have found agreement.