glvaca
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Telemecus
quote:
ORIGINAL: glvaca
In contrast, the Luftwaffe was a superbly oiled machine. Expertly led, in the air and on the ground. Actually, the Ju88 is a dive bomber and in expert hands it could compete with the Ju87 in accuracy. Unfortunately (like other Russian planes) it is a level bomber (which it off course also did).
While the point is valid I just wanted to put some of the contrary views. A lot of the historical research I was reading up on actually points to the Nazi period as the most inefficient in German history. There were numerous redundancies on everything as multiple agencies were tasked with the same job and competed more on political rivalries. In a centralised system you could at least claim there is no duplication and clear lines of responsibility, in a decentralised system normally the incentive to compete on results. The Nazi system combined the worst elements of both. It successes were more due to the heroic efforts of those who worked in it than because of it.
Whatever Goerings qualities as a Nazi politician and pilot, as head of the Luftwaffe he was no asset. His deputies like Udet really did the good work - and then they started committing suicide.
Nazi administration grossly inflated equipment requirements and procurement. The dive bombing capability not just of the Ju88 but other "level bombers" was a case in point. Why create a requirement which will then not be used. Whatever the jokes about Soviet equipment it was brutally well procured. Soviet designers had the expected life spans and battle durations of equipment and reduced tolerances and design specifications accordingly. Soviet armaments were production engineer led whereas Germany was design engineer led. Soviet production tended to be on a moving assembly line with hard moulds, fixed jigs etc, German production on a standing assembly line with adjustable moulds and jigs. German procurement specifically required "flexibility" from manufacturers - and used it constantly. There were numerous variations made which were mostly "nice to haves". Nor were they block phased, they were introduced straight away. So typically on a German production line the next to be finished was a different version from the last to be commenced. Although the Tiger tank is not an aircraft, its story is analogous. The manual of the first tiger tanks boasted it took 100,000 man hours to produce, ten times more than the best Soviet tanks. It is a good tank, but not as good as ten of the best Soviet tanks.
Added to this the Luftwaffe had its own doctrinal dead ends. They never had a heavy bomber. And not only was the dive bombing capability of level bombers superfluous, even the Stuka dive bombers became worthless without air superiority. The jet fighter was needlessly delayed by the requirement that it should carry bombs. And so on.
While ultimately the Allies had the industrial might, Germany still was a major modern industrial nation. It simply should not have ceded air superiority in the west as soon as it did.
Rather than seeing the Luftwaffe as a well lead and oiled machine it would be better to see it as the enthusiastic glider pilots who learnt their war time trade fighting as the Condor Legion in Spain. They were effective as they "learnt by doing". As the core was lost and the organisation expanded it lost its edge as the allies learnt faster by doing more.
I always appreciate your comments/advice. 
And I agree with most except for your last comment. It is true they used the glider schools to prepare for a new Luftwaffe during the early days of Hitler in power to get around the restrictions of Versailles. And, yes, they learnt a great deal from the condor legion in Spain. But by 1941, that was a thing of the past.
In a nutshell, my interpretation of your post exposes the weaknesses of Hitler's political rule. He created conflicting agencies who would compete for power and would come to him for a decision. For me this is "divide and rule". And, yes, Goering was an idiot addicted on morphine.
My comment was more directed at the German fighter gruppe and their commanders in the field. I recommend you read: Stopped at Stalingrad, The Luftwaffe and Hitler's defeat in the East 1942-1943, Joel S.A. Hayward.
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