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Originally posted by wayne c. petrie
I was at the Mohne Dam in '69.At that time you could still see where the dam had been breached and the repair work done.
We later found a site,on a high hill, where German AA's had been set up.What a commanding view of the area and approches to the dam.It's a wonder how any aircraft cound have got past the AA's.
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Certainly after the raids the AA facilities were either instigated or heavily increased. But all that took time and a few tip and run raids with Mosquitoes perhaps would have extended the rebuild time greatly and made a huge contribution to the cumulative effect.
Even with additional defences, disrupting the re-build would likely have been well within the RAF acceptance of sortie losses, Mossies at full chat were rather difficult to hit with the technology of the day.
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The bomber crews were certanly brave.
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There is no question about that whatsoever.
The policy of Arthur Harris and the planning staff is debatable though, very broadly, flattening private houses didn't collapse our resolve, why would we think it would collapse theirs?
It is a matter of the record that the height of British bombing effort also coincided with the peak of German heavy armour output. Was the eye on the ball?
German records credit the US bombing effort as very markedly more damaging to their war effort and industry, the bombing figures are 950k tons for the RAF and 700k tons for the US.
R.