Lies my history teacher taught me...

That should get someone's attention.

I'm not betting the croc dollar on this but I am SURE at some point in the Bund history I've posted the exact same sentiments Ryan just posted concerning the air war in WWII. But here's something more important.

Precision daytime bombing was the KEY to the US strategy. Knocking out the German industrial machine would shorten the war. Round the clock bombing, with the RAF bombing at night, would keep the Nazis from rebuilding their losses and create an Allied victory. We've ALL heard this, for almost 70 YEARS we've bought this load of CRAP. It is simply the longest lie continued about WWII.

Make no mistake, when Gen. James Doolittle takes command of the 8th Air Force in Jan 1944 he is not interested in bombing accuracy. He is not interested in demoralizing civilians, or destroying Nazi infrastructure. He only cares about getting the fighters off the ground so his fighters can kill them. Period. End of story.

The thousand bomber raid on Berlin in March of 1944 cost the 8th Air Force 69 bombers. The Germans lost 179 fighters. We lost almost six men to every Nazi pilot downed. And it is toted as a VICTORY. Were the targets hit? Yes, 179 of them, they're called ME-109s, FWs, and whatever else they could throw up into the sky. BOMBED targets didn't mean a damned thing.

This is the first show, the FIRST SHOW in almost 70 years that acknowledges that FACT. Did we see statistics like that in the WWII Museum in New Orleans? Will you see stats like that at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs? Or the Military Academy at West Point? If you're lucky enough to land in a history class that actually COVERS WWII, they'll STILL feed you that same line of BS. Precision daytime bombing shortened the war. Never mind that German production of fighters, munitions, small arms and tanks INCREASED in monthly totals from 1943 to 1945. That's what we teach. That's what we print.

One of my favorite war movies ever is 12 O'Clock High with Gregory Peck... And just about the ENTIRE premise of the movie is a lie. Precision daytime bombing was a deliberate, calculated use of American bombers and crew to flush the German fighters into the air, where they were vulnerable. Where the bombs fell was a PR campaign.

I know, I get pissy and for a basic selfish reason. We as a nation have done many unsavory things during war and during peace, and we as a nation have OFTEN lied about it, but me? Personally? How could I have NOT SEEN THIS, not put two and two together, for just about my entire adult life? I knew German war production increased from 43 to 45... But daytime precision bombing shortened the war? Grrrr.