Amerika Bombers 1944: Ragnarocky Road
Luftwaffe bombers 1944. [KG 100 under air attack 1944.] When you read The Big Book of Luftwaffe History , one surprising thing you notice is how hopeful the Luftwaffe and its managers in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium [RLM - Reich Air Ministry] were at the start of 1944. This hope was not irrational, either: there were several factors, even facts, to underpin that hope, and it was a durable hope, too, lasting throughout even the spring of 1944, when the already battered Luftwaffe took terrible losses as they lost control of the skies over Germany. The most impressive fact was Armaments Minister Albert Speer's expansion of German fighter production, while dispersing the factories: 27 big plants were turned into roughly 270 dispersed ones, keeping production of basic fighter types (the Bf 109 and Fw 190) resilient in the face of Allied bombing. Even as the spring losses mounted, Germany made good and even gained fighter airframes: in January, fighter deliveries were 50%...