Minor losses? We lost 63 B-17s on raids against ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt in October 1943. Over 600 crew members killed or captured in a single bloody day. Even at maximum wartime production, we couldn’t sustain those losses and only the introduction of the P-51 allowed us to resume bombing raids deep into Germany on a regular basis.
And Schweinfurt wasn’t the only “bad day” for 8th Air Force over Germany.
Now, now, you’re bringing reality in to compare it with what the salesmen and bombing advocates promised prior to the employment of the weapons system in actual combat.
The 8th Air Force had many bad days and the losses were staggering if we consider it in today’s terms, but what the 8th Air Force represented was the will to win at all costs and as tragic as the losses were, there is little doubt that they broke the back of industrial Germany and greatly shortened the world.
One can argue endlessly that we should have employed different tactics or waited until fighter escort was available, but that was not the mindset of the day. WWII was a brutal chapter of human history, but it also represents the last war our nation truly fought to win at all costs - absolute victory. Today our warfighters are hamstrung by a spineless bunch of snowflakes as politicians and appointed administrators, feckless diplomats, a treacherous UN, and perhaps worst of all - a soft society with a whining media.
On a more positive note - wasn’t the P-51 an incredible bird? Consider the ramifications if it had been deployed in great numbers only a year earlier. In my opinion (former Army guy), outside of the two bombs dropped on Japan, it is likely the best single weapons system every deployed in human history. It was that good - devastatingly good. The F-15 had the same potential, but thankfully it was never embroiled in a total war. The P-51 was almost unstoppable by the end of the campaign and had we dedicated more of them to an anti-tank role we might have shortened the war in Europe even more (an often neglected argument). Close Air Support was not really a concept at the time, but it would have excelled in that role as well.
FRegards.
Look up the word “facetious”.
In a recent trip to the Savannah Area I went to the "Mighty 8th" Museum. It was humbling, and thought provoking and you come out with a greater sense of honor for the dwindling number of the Mighty 8th that broke the Nazi's back.
It is a must see IMHO.....