Me-410 vs Mosquito combat

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by Juha

Of course much depends how one define effective but IIRC Do 217s of KG 2 shot down or crippled several night fighters.

Hello Juha,

Thank you for mentioning a case of which I was not aware. Do you know of any good sources which describe KG 2's encounters with night fighters? This is not something I have read about in detail before, so any hints would be helpful.

Originally Posted by John Beaman

Positive propaganda and illusions of success are more important in wartime than the truth.

Hello John,

You are right to an extent, but it can be safely said that it is not possible to win a war with "illusions of success" . The fact that the 8th and 15th Air Force bombers could inflict constant, if relatively minor, losses on German fighters is in fact a demonstration of the enormous degree of US technical superiority during the war. No other combatant could hope to achieve anything similar, the Augsburg raid by Lancasters in 1942 being just one illustration of the very heavy losses experienced on daylight raids. To put it explicitly, the USAAF had the equipment to do almost anything it wished, even in 1942. It was only when the 8th set itself extraordinary objectives, like bombing Schweinfurt, that it suffered unbearable losses. The RAF and especially the Luftwaffe would never have been in that position in the first place, since they did not posess the numbers of high-quality aircraft that US industry could produce.

Regards,

Paul