WW2 Wasteful operations
Imagine a small elite bomber force of British and American bombers (like the Pathfinders)...
Imagine no grandiose air force dreams of winning the war without an invasion...
Imagine no strategic (carpet) bombing but precision attacks (as far as the word goes) and a genuine support of the invasion and West European ground campaign...
Imagine a shift in 1942 from bomber production towards maritime patrols (same airframes)... We all know how efficient they are, don't we?
Imagine an even bigger shift in 1943 towards building transports, C-47 Dakota's, C-54's etc...
Imagine fuel and ammo being flown from Britain straight towards the forward racing armoured colums of Patton and Montgomery...
Imagine Operation MARKET (the airborne component of MARKET GARDEN) being able to land the British 1st, the US 82nd and the US 101 and the Polish Airborne Brigade in one lift on one day and support them accordingly...
Imagine peace in December 1944.
I try to make the point that the Allies were building bombers till the very last months of the war, but were hampered by a lack of maritime patrols in 1942 and 1943 and were short of transport/cargo planes during 1944 and 1945.
Just because there was a strong believe in air force circles that bombers could do the job single handed!
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