Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainDoggles
Hmmm.
Well, I agree that the Luftwaffe were not always outnumbered 100% of the time.
But the whole point of Big Week was to exhaust, attrit and otherwise destroy the Luftwaffe in preparation for the D-Day landings and I'll maintain that Allied air superiority was the norm. Allied numbers were very very high during this period. For example, during one of the Berlin raids, they sent 800 escort fighters. While the Luftwaffe may have achieved local superiority in some cases, this would have been the exception, not the rule.
By February of 1944 the LW was feeling the effects of chronic fuel shortages, and the situation only got worse from there.
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The only American fighters that could reach Berlin were the few P-51s and even less P-38s.
Feb 25 1944, Mission 235, final Big Week mission
- 268 B-17s are dispatched to aviation industry targets at Augsburg and the industrial area at Stuttgart, 196 hit Augsburg and targets of opportunity and 50 hit Stuttgart
- 267 of 290 B-17s hit aviation industry targets at Regensburg and targets of opportunity
At the end of May 1944, the Germans had ~400,000 metric tons of aviation fuel more than they did in Feb 1944.
- 172 of 196 B-24s hit aviation industry targets at Furth and targets of opportunity
- Escort is provided by 73 P-38s, 687 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-47s and 139 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51s
These targets were beyond the range of the P-47s so only the 212 P-38s and P-51s could do the escorting and would be split among the 3 target areas.
At the end of May 1944, the Germans had ~400,000 metric tons of aviation fuel more than they did in Feb 1944.