primary vs. secondary

These were the terms I used.

In other words, I never meant to completely discount the validity of the bombing runs as an ends unto themselves, but I think a few things are quite clear. Those particular months weren't intended to scare the holy bat snot out of the German populous. Done that though it might have, that wasn't Doolittle's aim. The runs were intended to clear the air space for the Normandy invasion and the Western front in general. And while you can certainly make the case that bombing railways, bridges, and roads to Normandy aided the invasion by denying resupply routes to the Jerrys, I think that was of secondary concern to putting the hurt on the Luftwaffe fighters. And the Berlin bound missions were solely for the purpose of drawing out Goering's boys.

To put it another way, in March of 44' the primary focus of the USAF/RAF was very narrow - ensure the success of the imminent Dday invasion. It wasn't a grand, reduce their capacity to wage war plan. In that light there is only one reason to venture that far into Germany, into Berlin herself... 70% of the German fighter force was stationed within fighting distance of the city.

I think Jambo was so passionate (not to put words in his mouth) not because dropping those loads were of zero value, but rather because the bait and hook strategy was never discussed (as a part of the American tale). And I think he was a little bothered by not coming to the realization of Doolittle's strategy before now (of which he is not alone, I was taken aback by this discovery myself). And I do share Jambo's frustration in this aspect's omission from standard history lessons, if for no other reason then it adds to the heroism, the tale of the 8th.

At any rate, my overall point is that if the primary goal was to draw out the Krauts, that doesn't necessitate that the secondary goal, dropping the pay loads, was of no value whatsoever.

And let me just say something about Jambo's "unsavory" comment. Maybe I'm taking that wrong, but I didn't get anything nefarious out of this. I would wager the croc dollar that using American fly boys as "bait" bothered no one more than Doolittle. In this program they made it quite clear that there was a dedication to total war, winning at any cost, and they had no choice but to use this strategy, for one reason and one reason only - it was working. No other approach was going to allow for the German air forces to be thinned. Not doing so would have gotten even more Allied men killed, that was my take away from this.