1st) The LW was unable to stop the bombing campaign (although it did inflict significant losses)
Wow,
I think most people in this thread have hit this on the mark, a troll.
If the heavy RAF attacks on German urban centers occasioned much frustration for the British, the American daylight attacks threatened total disaster for the U.S. Eighth Air Force. As mentioned, the heavily-armed B-17 Flying Fortresses also flew in very close formations to one another and supplied protection from the Luftwaffe via massed defensive firepower. But their attrition became frightful and losses continued to rise dangerously. This tendency reached a climax in mid- and late 1943 at the time of the massive American attack on the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt. In the course of six days during that year the U.S. lost 148 Boeing B-17s -- a veritable massacre and a loss too great for the Americans to bear, by any reasonable calculation. Daylight bombing had to be suspended for several months thereafter. To the British proponents of nighttime area bombardment, the slaughter of the American Flying Fortresses was conclusive evidence that they had followed the proper course of action; they urged that the remaining U.S. air power (plus the cornucopia of newly produced aircraft from America's safe factories) be subsumed under RAF guidance for missions at night.
Yes, the Luftwaffe halted unescorted daylight bombing.
But the U.S. air armada in England was neither equipped nor trained for such a transformation. Notwithstanding their recent calamities, the Americans defiantly believed that their English brothers were still on the wrong track. Senior American officials in London and Washington looked for a way out of their tribulations. What was needed was a superior U.S. fighter aircraft of sufficient long range to escort the B-17s and other bombers to their targets and eventually sweep the skies of German interceptors. The solution was found in January 1944 in the form of the North American P-51D Mustang aircraft. When the United States resumed day bombardment raids in February 1944, the momentum swung sharply away from the Germans.
http://www.390th.org/research/Stories/offensive.htm2nd) The LW as a general rule was unable to successfully challenge the allied fighter cover.
Wrong. Luftwaffe fighters were strictly forbidden from offensively attacking escorts. Their target was the bombers. Galland unsuccessfully argued for a two week period of targeting escort fighters. Hitler and Goering forbid it.
The LW was unable to mount any siginificant offensive actions over england.
Wrong. The failed German strategy was to be defensive in the West until the Soviet Union was defeated. You confuse capability with intent.
For much, but certainly not all, of the Western Campaign after the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe left only two fight wings in the west. That is roughly 250 fighters at full strength.
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2072/LWJul42.html#Jul42Just like the British in the Battle of Britian, the Germans used radar to enact an effective defense. They held air superiority over Europe until Operation Argument.
The Luftwaffe held air superiority over Europe until February 1944.
Although still capable of the stoutest kind of local resistance on occasion, the enemy now refused to commit himself to a policy of full-scale opposition to the daylight bombing campaign. He would send up only token resistance to some missions and then concentrate as large a force as in earlier months against a particular operation. At other times the GAF would try no more than to gain a local superiority by sending overwhelming numbers against one unit, especially a unit that had in some way become separated from its fellows or was left without adequate escort.46 In short the policy was one of conservation of strength and it conceded to the Allies the vital point of air superiority.
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/III/AAF-III-2.htmlThe Germans failed to prevent or plan for the build up of allied air forces. Their strategic shortsightedness cost them heavily.
ATTRITION................
Won the air war.
All the best,
Crumpp
