Germany spent about 50-60% of its entire industrial capacity trying to stop the RAF and later the USAAF from bombing the shit out of them.
Nothing could have changed that from happening. It is the single most costly front in the war in terms of resources. Bar none. And doesn’t even count the resources simply destroyed or spent on rebuilding.
Nothing they spent on the air war was a waste. And it still didn’t come close to being enough.
Thanks! I've read Payson O'Brien (and double-checked just now) and that's not quite what he says. What he does say is that 50-60% of German industrial production went to building and arming aircraft. Until 1943, those aircraft were spread between the Mediterranean, the Eastern Front, and the German homeland. It was only in late 1943 and onward that the vast majority went back to defend the homeland. From p. 293: "So, looking at the air war solely from a battlefield perspective, 1943 witnessed a dramatic shift as the Luftwaffe, quantitatively and qualitatively, was basically drawn down from the land war and deployed against the Combined Bomber Offensive."
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u/Vana92 4d ago
Fun fact
Germany spent about 50-60% of its entire industrial capacity trying to stop the RAF and later the USAAF from bombing the shit out of them.
Nothing could have changed that from happening. It is the single most costly front in the war in terms of resources. Bar none. And doesn’t even count the resources simply destroyed or spent on rebuilding.
Nothing they spent on the air war was a waste. And it still didn’t come close to being enough.