Your opinions are interesting and you have quite a lot of insight, but I think we basically agree…
ad 1) The Spitfire tried its best, so it took the escort over Belgium and the Netherlands (I mean version 9) then, because the RAF understood that it wouldn’t work during the day, they introduced night raids, which were not for the Spitfire…
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ad 2) Yes, but they took off from airfields in occupied Europe (Bf had an advantage) … it was a reverse version of BoB … Spitfires had too little fuel to fight over Europe, when starting from England…
ad 3,4,5,6 and others ) Yes, it was the Douhet doctrine, but it failed already in 1939 (Air Battle over Heligoland bight ) … but RAF BC , it was a classic ossified administrative structure, it took a while to get the hang of it realized and the Americans, they still had to learn it cruelly at the time… In Germany, General Walther Wever developed Douhet’s theory, but in 1936 he died in the crash of a He-70, during take-off (Udet et al., they no longer dealt with it) … and basically the Allies used his conclusions to create a bombing campaign over Europe…
Yes, the training level of the Luftwaffe gradually decreased, but there were still enough high-quality fighters + Experten left, their real disaster did not come until 1.1.1945 ( Bodenplatte ) …
Spitfire vs. The P-51 is essentially a US vs. GB…
He started already at the time of the arrival of the Eagle Squadrons in Europe (US volunteer pilots), long before the arrival of the “Mighty Eighty”.
These pilots achieved the greatest success on Spitfires, but the US command did not like it… , they needed to sell the American success and they still have this principle … we never praise what we did not invent …
The Americans wanted to take control of the war in Europe and succeeded.
The British, they played second fiddle in the end, but they were still successful…!
All of them, it cost terrible human losses, but in the post-war years it was fully used politically, it’s cynical, but it’s true … From the dead are heroes, from planes and other equipment are legends and possible mistakes of commanding officers? Either it will be covered with the inscription TOP SECRET, or it will not be talked about and quietly waited for it to settle in the dust…
Grand Slam, Tallboy … also special bombs that are legends today, but I agree with you that the most frequently used bomb load was 8x 250 kg, or 2x 500 kg + 4x 250 kg, etc., you really need to thoroughly read the available logbooks , reports of raids, etc.
Finally Baby Blitz, those bomber numbers are huge, I wouldn’t underestimate it…
For this event, the Luftwaffe deployed BC, basically everything they had, not only He-177, but also Ju-88, Do-217, Me-410, Ju-188, battle FW 190…
They started in February 1944 and ended in May 1944, the strategic successes were questionable, but the British cities were broken a lot…
The Germans wanted to do something they didn’t have the technology, concept or experience to do and the British try to play it down because even though it wasn’t as bad as 1940 they just couldn’t stop the bombers completely…
Then came the invasion so they never got across the channel, plus the USAF won the bombing campaign known as the “Battle of Gasoline”, the de facto Luftwaffe BC effectively ceased to exist…