Quote:
Originally Posted by tcolvin
So why was BC at the height of its powers ineffectual?
Was it sabotage by Harris in his feud with Portal?
Was BC really only interested in area bombing the few unburnt cities left like Dresden?
Tony
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Hi Tony,
You have not included one of the more obvious possibilities - simply, that the winter weather, which severely restricted bombing by the Allies in December 1944 and January 1945, is a likely explanation for the lack of bombs dropped on the dams. No air force is in the habit of expending a large effort to send a force of bombers to the target only not to bomb unless there are very good reasons.
I would suggest that you find and read the relevant RAF BC Group reports and RAF BC Group and Squadron Operational Record Books in AIR 14 at TNA in order to establish the reasons you seek (8 Group would be a good place to start). The other reasons you have stated are conjecture (unless you find memos from Harris or other BC Commanders directly supporting your hypothesis). Another Bomber Command file worthy of checking is AIR 14/1436, which specifically concerns operations against the Roer and Urft River Dams in the period between October-December 1944.
As to a pinpoint attack by 617 and 9 Squadrons (which were part of Cochrane's 5 Group) with Tallboys; besides any target and resource allocation issues decided at a higher level, reasonably good visibility and other factors such as wind speeds within accepted parameters would be needed in the target area at normal operational height in order to visually bomb the dams using the SABS bomb sight, which, I might add, was a complicated piece of machinery that required a very well-trained and skilled crew to operate with any accuracy, and a
long run in to the target before release. Reading the 617 ORB entries in the link provided earlier in this thread bares these points out, and it is obvious from the ORBs that the crews tried repeatedly in well less than ideal conditions to conduct successful bomb runs.
The Tallboy Lancasters could not be equipped with H2S and, anyway, I doubt that any existing blind bombing aid in use at that time could guarrantee the level of accuracy required for the Tallboys to be effective against the dams (i.e. to justify the expenditure of such a valuable commodity as a Tallboy - this is conjucture, further checking of RAF BC files would be needed to exactly establish any Tallboy targeting criteria). It would seem highly unlikely that conventional bombs would have done anything more than pockmark the dams.
Cheers
RodM