I noticed it is very constraining to keep British fighters in range of a berlin grab without using a US carrier buy in Norway. Assuming you have Norway and a decent sized Atlantic fleet, could British bombers instead of fighters be the play?
If you had around 4 bombers, you could threaten berlin from pretty much everywhere (gibraltar [ab], london, moscow, trans jordan/egypt [ab]) while also bombing German factories when it makes sense. With 4 UK transports in range, at any given moment the Germans have to be ready for a US can opener, along with a 4 infantry, 4 artillery, and 4 bomber hit on berlin at a minimum if no other British fighters are in range.
In order for the Germans to defend that with decent odds (lets say more than 80% success), they need 17 infantry (51 IPCs).
That’s just another territory Germany needs to hold on top of Western Germany, France, southern Italy, northern Italy and whatnot that comes at a relatively small cost to the British.
A counter argument to this would be that the British fighters are necessary to lock down US landings and keep carriers full, but I think that the extra territory for the Germans to defend is worth more to the allies.
If the US or UK has taken Norway, fighters based there can reach Germany and back to Norway without any airbase or carrier.
That being said, a full court press on Germany should include some strategic bombers for industrial bombing to help reduce some of Germany’s income that can be used to both defend Europe and strangle Russia at the same time.
Marsh
@marshmallowofwar but if there are fighters just sitting in Norway, they’re useless elsewhere.
The problem the bombers would be solving is the fighters sitting in Norway just picking up dust. The bombers could be in Moscow, Gibraltar, the UK, Norway, bombing any German production point and contributing to those 1 inf and 5 planes vs 1 inf battles.
The question is in my opinion: is the versatility that the bombers offer worth the cost of having fewer fighters to sit on complexes to intercept, protect carriers and sit on airbases, and secure US landings.
