Depending on the reports, it showed the opposite. We sent waves and waves of bombers into hell, and Germany kept making tanks and guns till we over ran the factories.
In Japan, we would bomb and shell all day and night, and then we still had to send in the Marines to clear an island. Now air power has a role, a big role, but at the end of the day it is some guy with rifle that will solve the problem.
Once Germany lost control of the skies with their Luftwaffe, they were finished.
Air power may not win wars alone, but you sure can’t win wars without it.
Soon it will be a human form robot with a gun. Then things get interesting. As in the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”...
Don’t disagree with you.
But without control of the sky, the grunt on the ground doesn’t get a chance to secure anything.
With Japan and the island hopping campaign that was necessary, it is important to remember, we were battling an entrenched foe. They were fortified and under ground. It wasn't the mechanized and mobile enemy we fought in Europe. So air support for ground troops was largely ineffective. Fighter bombers were only able to strafe and bomb holes in the ground from which the Japanese were entrenched.
Today we have ordinance that would have saved 10s of thousands of American lives. Bunker busters would have been a huge help in the island wars.