How could the Luftwaffe and German Anti-Aircraft have inflicted as many losses as possible on RAF Bomber Command from September 1939 to December 1941?
AHC: Maximize Bomber Command Losses From 1939-1941
- Thread starter AbeLincoln1865
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Deleted member 1487
They could have invested in the cavity magnetron that was developed in 1935 and neglected:
http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=02123728
If they developed something like the Booth-Randall Magnetron by 1940 or so Bomber Command might be having a bad time with centimetric wavelength radar directed FLAK and night fighters.
http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=02123728
If they developed something like the Booth-Randall Magnetron by 1940 or so Bomber Command might be having a bad time with centimetric wavelength radar directed FLAK and night fighters.
Deleted member 1487
More resources for the night fighter command earlier...other than that without technology changes their methods were working pretty damn well in that period. It forced the change to the Bomber Stream method to overcome it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammhuber_Line
Bomber Command & the RAF bombers in general suffered so badly this period it's difficult to see the point.
Deleted member 1487
Tyr Anazasi
Banned
One should let the German night fighters fight over the bomber bases of the British squadrons (Fernnachtjagd). So they could catch them in the most vulnerable phase. Kammhuber did successfully try this, but Hitler forbade.
Deleted member 1487
They were only discontinued in late 1941, which is at the very end of the period OP is talking about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachtjagdgeschwader_2#Intruders_1940-41
I suppose you could resource them more and deny resources to bomber units instead as the aircraft would have to be Ju88Cs at that time. The Do217 night fighters would have been more useful as night bombers for intruder missions, but they weren't ready until 1942.
So...short of some technical advance or a lot more resources thrown at BC (only really possible without Barbarossa) I'm not sure how you make this happen in the time period in question. That is short of having BC continue daylight operations over Germany.
Having something as effective as the Lichtenstein radar minus the drag it imposed due to having a cavity magnetron working in 1941 would certainly make BC's losses at night much worse and probably would have forced a switch to the bomber stream earlier or a calling off of the bombing offensive for a while.
BlondieBC
Banned
I would go with another easy choice. Germany decides not to do the BoB. It frees up lots of air frames and experience pilots for the effort. Use about half of these losses to defend the homeland, and bomber losses should jump a good bit. Now depending on how much fighter air cover the Brits try to use over Flanders and France, it may increase or decrease British fighter losses.
BlondieBC
Banned
Besides Goering having a premature death from a car accident? You have to look at the organizational structure, but you want to check and see if their was a separate anti-bomber command in the Luftwaffe. Also, transfer your best generals and your most experience pilots to this command.
Also, more naval interdiction by air will have a positive impact. Indirect, but potentially huge. The more ships sunk on the way to the British Isles, the worse the supply situation will be for bomber command. It is hard to quantify, but things like less spare parts, less fuel for training, and other shortages can have a profound impact on the bomber command effectiveness.
BlondieBC
Banned
Also a bit indirect, but if we move up the V-1 deployment date, couldn't we force the UK to attempt sustained daylight bombing against V-1 sites? All over Flanders against a well organized air defense. I don't think politically a British government could allow V-1 to regularly hit London, and then do nothing.
hammo1j
Donor
I agree with Wiking that is very strange that the Germans didn't get the cavity magnetron until January 1945.
One idea that could be tried is daylight strafing of bomber command aircraft in the UK. I know that in 1941 and 42 the RAF didn't have a complete air superiority over the UK and there were quite a lot of a fast bomber raids into the UK, so some F.W 190 s could do the job against parked aircraft
One idea that could be tried is daylight strafing of bomber command aircraft in the UK. I know that in 1941 and 42 the RAF didn't have a complete air superiority over the UK and there were quite a lot of a fast bomber raids into the UK, so some F.W 190 s could do the job against parked aircraft
Deleted member 1487
Cavity magnetrons have some downsides and the Germans opted to go with safer technology rather than invest in something that didn't work as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavity_magnetron#Radar
What was surprising in retrospect is that the Japanese researchers didn't share their advanced models of cavity magnetrons when touring Germany in 1940-41:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoji_Ito#VHF
Perhaps if Ito shared it in late 1940 something could have been done with it. Part of the problem with the German model in 1935 is that it lacks true resonating cavities like the British and later Japanese models (I guess the Germans didn't figure out the utility of those until late), so that might have been part of the reason they didn't opt to pursue the technology at the time.
As to daylight staffing the RAF protected their bases pretty well against low level attacks; later the Allies were simply willing to pay the cost that aggressive strafing entailed, while the Luftwaffe in 1941 really couldn't afford that, especially with Barbarossa.
hammo1j
Donor
Agreed the Allies much better at sharing their technology than the Germans and Japanese. Indeed pretty much all of the radar that the Americans used was the H2X which was derived from the original British invention of H2S.
I would probably say then that the answers to the original posters question would be:
1.to progress with centimetric radar
2.more night intruder raids on returning bombers and bomber bases
I would probably say then that the answers to the original posters question would be:
1.to progress with centimetric radar
2.more night intruder raids on returning bombers and bomber bases
Deleted member 1487
You forgot nuclear tipped SAMs
But seriously Germany did share with Japan, the Japanese, who were well received by the Germans thanks to Ito having studied in Germany pre-war and spoke fluent German plus was incredibly talented, did not share in return:
https://books.google.com/books?id=u...CAEQXw#v=onepage&q=ito yoji magnetron&f=false
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Then what might happen? Because of the heavier losses Bomber Command is forced to temporarily suspend offensive bombing missions. But what to do with the surviving and the newly built heavy bombers? Give most of them to Coastal Command. They would be put to very good use in the Battle of the Atlantic.