The Oslo Mosquito Raid of September 25th, 1942.
It didn't go quite as planned IOTL. The bombs didn't hit the Gestapo HQ as they should... but what if it had?
We know today that the massed bombing raids by the heavies like the Lancaster, Liberator and Flying Fortress in WWII weren't quite as effective as hoped. We also know and see that the points that need to be hit to disrupt production or the movement of a military force are quite small.
What if it had been realized part of the way through 1943 as the crew losses in Bomber Command and the 8th Air Force mounted that massed raids at high altitude were only really effective as carpet bombing on sites like rail yards, ship yards and troop concentrations.
Two to six plane raids at low level using Mosquitos and A-26 Invaders become the norm, not the exception. Places like Schwienfurt were hit hard by fast attacks with smaller, time delayed munitions.
Large heavy raids still happened on places like Peenumunde and feints over the North Sea... a large group of bombers heads for the coast with a heavy fighter escort tucked in amongst them, the Germans come, the bombers drop Window (chaff) and run for home, the fighters go one on one... feints like that.
Could the minds at Bomber Command in the UK alone (remember these guys did things like the Bouncing Bomb) or in the UK AND the USA been changed to these tactics over Europe during 1942/1943 if raids like the one on Oslo had gone well, or would something more have been needed?
I keep thinking of this scenario, why didn't the journey from carpet bombing cities to precise low/medium bombing runs start earlier?
It didn't go quite as planned IOTL. The bombs didn't hit the Gestapo HQ as they should... but what if it had?
We know today that the massed bombing raids by the heavies like the Lancaster, Liberator and Flying Fortress in WWII weren't quite as effective as hoped. We also know and see that the points that need to be hit to disrupt production or the movement of a military force are quite small.
What if it had been realized part of the way through 1943 as the crew losses in Bomber Command and the 8th Air Force mounted that massed raids at high altitude were only really effective as carpet bombing on sites like rail yards, ship yards and troop concentrations.
Two to six plane raids at low level using Mosquitos and A-26 Invaders become the norm, not the exception. Places like Schwienfurt were hit hard by fast attacks with smaller, time delayed munitions.
Large heavy raids still happened on places like Peenumunde and feints over the North Sea... a large group of bombers heads for the coast with a heavy fighter escort tucked in amongst them, the Germans come, the bombers drop Window (chaff) and run for home, the fighters go one on one... feints like that.
Could the minds at Bomber Command in the UK alone (remember these guys did things like the Bouncing Bomb) or in the UK AND the USA been changed to these tactics over Europe during 1942/1943 if raids like the one on Oslo had gone well, or would something more have been needed?
I keep thinking of this scenario, why didn't the journey from carpet bombing cities to precise low/medium bombing runs start earlier?