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Originally Posted by Six Nifty .50s
That may have been true about rail lines, but not in general.
For example, in July 1944 the RAF area bombed Caen in front of the British Army which was stalled outside the city. The Bomber Command raid was completely unnecessary, doing more to help the German Army than damage them. Very few German troops were inside Caen and many French civilians were killed by the bombs. Later, some of the bombing survey teams discovered that the British Army advance was actually delayed more by the huge bomb craters and piles of rubble that blocked their path through the city.
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Yes, the support of ground troops by heavy bombers in WWII often proved to help more the other side. But once more if you compare both RAF and USAAF involvment in such missions, you will see that both air forces failed in this achievement, both either hitting their own troops or missing enemy troops and creating rubble that helped them later.
Probably the worst idea ever by Allied bomber commanders was the decision to bomb Normandy cities to create roadblocks with their rubble on D-day and the days after. British and American raids killed thousands of French civilians in two days and German reports showed that their troops were almost not delayed at all. Fighter-bombers were far more useful to delay them and far more precise.
I think both air forces have in common to have seen their original conceptions fail. But both changed and their efficiency increased during the war. My own opinion is that bombing results of the RAF were most efficient at any time than USAAF. But the main contribution of the 8th AF still IMHO is to have defeated the German Luftwaffe in the air, killing thousands of German fighter pilots in 1944 and thus winning air superiority over Europe.
Even if both airforces became more and more powerful and precise during the war, German production increased in 1944. Only when both airforces targetted together the oil factories had they a decisive influence on the German war machine.