Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Beale
I did not know (and nor did I claim to) whether at some point after the BoB someone in an RAF future requirements paper specifically said "we should acquire our own dive-bomber" and some high-up specifically refused. Whether they did or not, I sought only to point out that there were by then rational grounds for doubting the survivability of such an aircraft in the face of a modern air defence system: viz, the RAF had shot down a lot of Ju 87s in the BoB and believed they had shot down even more; the Luftwaffe pulled the Stukas out of the fighting. Ordering RAF dive-bombers in that particular context might possibly have been seen as ill-advised.
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Since you don't know then let me inform you of the following;
a) dive bombers were ordered, delivered, and paid for, but
b) RAF Air Marshals overrode the army and refused to use them as dive bombers but diverted them to target-towing instead, while
c) publicly rubbishing dive bombing in the press to justify their position. But
d) the RAF and IAF in Burma, and the RAAF in Burma, used them successfully as dive bombers. However
e) the RAF Air Marshals insisted the dive bombers be replaced, and
f) the Air Marshals killed news of the dive-bombers' success in order to save themselves from the embarrassment of having to admit publicly that they had been wrong all along and that many good men had dies as a result.
All this has been covered earlier.
It can be read in Peter C. Smith's book, 'Vengeance!'.
There is a potentially infinite number of additional explanations as to why the RAF "refused" to operate dive bombers. But William of Occam's razor, aka lex parsimoniae, states that 'entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity'.
Therefore please forgive me for failing to realise you were only making a philosophical contribution to the debate.
Perhaps you will understand why I would think you were offering an alternative explanation, and that you were doing so in order once more to save the RAF from a collective red face. The RAF Air Marshals abused their position in their lifetimes in order to cover their arses. But on this occasion the truth has come out.