Umm as the LW CO for the frame - I find it kind of strange that a few of the RAF think they could have done even better!! My butt is bruised. Leave my ego be!!
Tilt has encapsulated it perfectly. His report is correct in every way.
Our plan was to scout out the bombers and then concentrate our fighters against the buffs. We never had any intention whatsoever to tangle with fighters. We wanted to find the buffs early so that they would be low and not set.
Our 262's had orders not to mix it up, but to stay high fast and alive. They were our eyes and ears - we were not going to waste them trying to pick off a few escorts. Because they were used as scouts and therefore split up across the map they were never going to be the sledgehammer to deal the killing blow. They were barely part of the actual "fighting" equation. That was to be the job of the A8's. The final ploy for the 262's was to zoom through the escorts as the 190's arrived. There was some hope that this would unsettle the escorts for long enough to let us get at the buffs.
The forward fighter defence effectively foiled a plan that was until then unfolding perfectly. The P51's were higher faster and lighter than the 190's. They kept us low and defensive. They were magnificent. When we finally hit the buffs we were low and had no E. Check with the northern P47's how easy it was to drop onto the 190's as they came in.
We had to split into 2 groups to meet the B17's. I had hoped they would come as a single group. The bulk of our resources hit the southern group. This group of B-17's were taken out. We lost 95% of our fighters though due to the ferocity of the escort. We had no reserve because they had been committed to the Northern group. Because of the high attrition we were not able to reform a credible reserve in the target area as per the original plan.
We had only half the numbers we needed to hit the north group with and even worse our lads were escorted to their targets by sniping P51's. We lost all of our North group defenders to the escorts and were still unable to take down more than half the buffs.
The tiny amount of defenders left (mostly damaged) were all on the ground refuelling when the Lancs arrived. The single surviving jet was the only aircraft we had that could reach them. It took a small toll of the retreating buffs.
Now - if I had just had about 15 more 109's standing in goal (dream on) we would have given you reason to be upset and introspective. Face it - your leaders gave you a plan that was good, damn good. The individual skill of the units and their CO's made it work.
Now for Pete's sake give some credit to the tenacity and skill of the defenders. It diminishes their brilliant work for someone to come in here and complain about plane-sets just because they got shot down! A lot of guys died out there Sunday. In fact more than any TOD I can remember for a while.
It was a great TOD. Again well done CM's, planners, flyers.
to you all 
