[colorado tanker]

Yes, Germany's achilles heal is energy and specifically petroleum to run a mechanized army. Much more so than ball bearings and other critical components. They were critically short of oil, but they had plenty of coal; hence, coal gassifcation. I agree, that's when bombing became really effective.

It's interesting that LeMay's success in Japan suggests the British weren't as off base in Europe with their nighttime incendiary bombing as the US thought at the time.

[RayChuang88]

Incorrect. Curtis LeMay used information from American diplomats living in Tokyo before World War II, who noted that most structures in Japanese cities at the time were built of wood and much industrial production was done in small workshops found in these densely packed wooden structures.

That's why when Tokyo was firebombed on the night of March 9-10, 1945, the destruction was enormous: 16 square miles of the city was wiped out, killing (by some estimates) as much as 125,000 people (the official Tokyo police count of just over 82,000 dead was based on the bodies they could identify; many victims were completely burned beyond recognition) and essentially wiping out the small production workshops through most of the city.