On 19/05/2012 08:12, Alan wrote:
In message , Nightjar
wrote

You only need to read a few of the documents from the time to know
that was the job they were expected to do, with shooting down aircraft
being seen as a happy bonus. In September 1940, it took around 20,000
shells to down one aircraft. Fighters were far more effective at
bringing enemy aircraft down.

To stop the public asking why despite sending up hundreds of thousands
of shells few aircraft were shot down the Ministry or Propaganda will
have suggested that it was to disrupt bombing.

That does not explain why it was official doctrine in documents that
were not released to the public at the time.

As all bomber forces in WWII found, accurate bombing was virtually
impossible hence the use of area bombing.

Area bombing was, by the end of the war, more a question of philosophy
than need. Despite the evidence that bombing had only strengthened the
resolve of the British, the official view, mostly promoted by Harris,
was that bombing civilian targets would demoralise the population.

The German X-Gerat could place bombs within 100 yards of the guidance
beam and with a spread of only a few hundred yards along it, which made
it more accurate than daylight bombing. Gee would have been similarly
accurate had we been bombing targets just across the Channel, but
positional accuracy over Germany was to within about a mile. Gee-H
improved that to around 120 yards, which was similar to Oboe without its
limitations.

Colin Bignell