World War II Air Campaign: Aerial Ordinance--Country Trends
Figure 1.--Here a German boy in 1944 wears a Panzer corps unifirm sems to be meauring himself against bombs. These may be 50 kg bombs. Thy are definitely high explosice bombs. The small size of the bombsips interesting. Hitler loved large weapons, but the Grmans did not have large bombs like the Allies. This is because they did not have heavy strategic bombers. Their bombers were medium bombers with limited ranges and small bomb loads. They could not carry large bombs. These could have been carried by fighter bombers, but by 1944 the Lufeaffe's primary mission was to fight off the Allied air raids and were not carrying bombs. We can make out MFD on the bomb. We don't know what that means. A reader writes, "MFB all I could find is that it is a clerical ID used by many companies and gov'ts. Not a type of bomb." Notice the long fins, much longer than the fins on Anerican and British bombs.
The only countries which extensively used bombs in World War II were the few countries with major air forces. And the vast majority of the bomb tonnage was dropped in the stratgic bombing campaign. The Soviet Union had the largest air force in the world at the outset of the War, but it was largely destroyed, much of it in the ground, during the first week of Barbarossa (June 1941). As most of the pilots survived, the Sovier rebuilt the air force and after Kursk (July 1943) aginecaur superority but did not conduct a significant strategic bombing campaign. The German Lufwaffe dominated the European battlefield during the first 2-3 years of the War. They did conduct strategic operations, most notably against Britain (1940). The Luftwaffe was, however, not designed for strategic operations. Their bombers were medium bombers with small bomb loads and limited range. The Germans simply did not have the industrial capacity to build a strtegic bomber force. This was also the case of Japan. They built bombers that could bomb Chinese cities, but after launching the Paciic War, the Japanese had no way of bombing the war naking capacity if the countries they has gone to war against (America, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand). They did bomn northern Australia, which damaged port facilities but has no real impact on the Australian war effort. Bombs were used by the Kido Butai, but the most formidable Japanese naval weapon was the torpedo. In contrast the Amerivans docused nore on bombs, in part because their torpedoes did not work. And after Midway (June 1942) the Kito Butai was seriously weakened. Two countries did conduct stratehic bombing attacks: America and Britain. Britain was able to focus the bulk of its industry on the air war because American Lend Lease furnished so much of the country's military equipment. The British built the kargest bombs of the War because they were so desperate to destoy the U-boat pens in French ports. Theu were also used against the Terpitz. America had the industrail capacity to build both a steategic and tactical air force. And the primary leadership of U.S. Arny Air Corps was the bomber boys. Both America and Britain wanted to avioid the huge losses experienced in World War I and strartegic bombing was seen as a way of doing this.
