Yes, quite
Reader comment on: War Games
in response to reader comment: Not quite

Submitted by Noisesome, Mar 25, 2008 09:55

>> I can't say I know the answer, though I wonder if directed attacks against the fuel infrastructure wouldn't have been just as effective without such civilian casualties.

Attacks on fuel refineries (and co-located chemical plants) had a profound effect on the German war effort. German artillery shells were often loaded with 50% rock salt instead of high explosives, sparing countless Allied infantrymen. Typical loses during air raids on Germany were about 5% of the force, raids against heavily defended fuel plants incurred casualities as high as 20%. Perhaps if the Russians had cooperated by allowing shuttle bombing, or allowed the U.S. Army Air Force to operate from bases in Russia. But the Russians viewed U.S. military presence on Soviet territory with grim suspicion.

Germany employed two million troops in air defense, troops with high value assets such as 88 mm canon that could have been employed with devastating effect on the Eastern front or against the Normandy invasion.

It is a matter of fact that German troops in the west outnumbered the Allies about 2 to 1. The Allies had a seven to one superiority in artillery and about a five to one (numerical) superiority in tanks. While much is made of the superiority of German tanks, only a few models, deployed in small numbers, actually enjoyed any advantage over the Sherman.

The value of air supremacy is most clearly illustrated by seige of Bastogne. While the German offensive was blunted by ground troops, when the weather cleared, American air power turned a defeat into a rout.

Officially the U.S. Army Air Force never targeted civilians or civilian targets (unlike the Luftwaffe or the RAF) in Germany (or in Japan for that matter). Navigation and ordance were not capable of avoiding heavy civilian collateral damage using World War II era technology. If the Germans had not employed such capable and spirited air defenses, the bombers could have bombed at lower altitudes and slower speed, placing more ordance on target and sparing civilians casualties. We could no more expect the Germans to do this than we could expect the Americans to spare German military targets.

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