[Ruy Horta]

The bombers are "attackers" but in the air they are defensive. Escort fighters if not too tied to the bombers are offensive in all almost every sense of the word.

Franek, I keep wondering how many of these heavy bomber types were actually in operation and in significant numbers during the essential period I describe - 1939-41.

Let off the hook and having the freedom to allocate resources to these heavies was crucial in their development, production and deployment. That events happened as they did doesn't mean that they were the only possible outcome. That's 20-20 "blindsight".

It is not being disputed that the Luftwaffe was poorly led at the highest level. Williamson Murray's example of bad planning is a good case, although again it is not the only possible outcome.

The RAF had a very good training program, proof of good or even essential foresight.

Yet again that part of having been let off the hook is essential to the development of FC. Those experienced fighter pilots evolved during the 1941-43 period, so by 1944 FC had a large cadre of highly experienced men.

Certainly, flying over the channel in uncontested skies does allow the accumulation of many flight hours, steady confidence building of the pilot, his ability to handle his aircraft and a gradual exposure to (the stresses of) combat.

Apart from the bad political leadership and bungling of a number of high ranking Luftwaffe officials. Gambling on a short war everything was geared towards that end, including freezing long term development of aircraft, engines and weaponry. But also production and training suffered, again see Murray.

However a blanket statement like worthless is exactly that. The Jagdwaffe and essentially a good operational training program, granted not geared for massive wartime expansion, but capable of producing good fighter pilots as long as there were time and resources to do so. The early wartime trainees are perhaps the best operationally trained Jagdwaffe pilots of the war. Getting the best practical and operational training.

And if we shouldn't call all Germans Nazis, we can safely say that the majority of them believed in Hitler.

There were plenty of doubts about any military operation from 1938 onward, but every success made Hitler's position stronger. After the defeat of the Anglo-French - the evacuation of the BEF from the continent, and French armistice - he was at his zenith as so-called military leader. Those who thought it that it was madness (or stupidity) to attack the Soviet Union not voice this sentiment in public, certainly not act upon it.

That at its core Nazism stood opposed to Communism is just the irony of this most unlikely of partnerships, especially considering that they were in practically open warfare with each other only a few months earlier as the Spanish civil war was being wound down.