Victor Davis Hanson had a brilliant insight on the American daylight bombing campaign of Germany in WWII.
The numbers really don’t do Justice to the campaign.
The big thing that the American daylight bombing campaign of Germany did was TO PULL THE 88 FLAK GUNS OFF THE RUSSIAN FRONT.
The Germans pulled them off the Russian front to shoot at our bombers.
The 88 Flak Gun was the greatest killer of Russian tanks.
The Russians were a very tank-oriented army.
Those German 88 Flak Guns weren’t there to kill Russian tanks.
Our bombers allowed the Russian tanks to drive to Berlin.
An absolutely brilliant observation by Hanson.
That is an interesting insight my VDH, and it may very well have been a happy result for the Russians, but I have a hard time believing that the pilots and crews of the 8th Air Force went over Germany in broad daylight as sacrifices for the Soviets.
What I am reminded of from the photos is that for America, WWII was largely fought by high school kids, led by college kids, whose senior officers were in their 30’s and 40’s. Patton was the ‘Old Man’ and was 60 in 1945. Eisenhower was still in his mid-50’s when the war ended.
Actually the deadliest Flak guns wrre the 120s. They had no problem resching the 8th’s formations. The bombing campaign caused Germany to concentrate aircraft production on 109s and 190s to the exclusion of aircraft that could be used in ground support in the East. My dad’s best friend was a group lead bombardier and questioned the cost till the day he died.
Helping the Soviets in WW2 was a horrible mistake that cost half of Europe their freedom. American men died to free Europe from the Nazis only to hand half of it over to the troglodytic, toilet-stealing Russians.