no, the bomber masses did NOT achieve that goal
they knew that at the time, they refused to listen
they were told bluntly they needed far far larger fleets to do it, x3 larger as they realised in the end to be precise
but all the info they had at the time showed they were NOT able to achieve anything like their ludicrous claims
German industry dispersed, went underground etc and while reduced, it was not nearly so affected as to come close to the waste of time, money, resources and as noted, the incredibly precious and expensive lives of all those aircrew!
point to consider
aircraft especially need highly intelligent crew
as tech increases, you need smarter and smarter folk to use the tech devices well
hence, even modern armies do NOT want dumbasses, where as once upon a time, a reasonably healthy body would do
thus, WW2 and the enormous loss of life of bomber crews, destroyed the true "flower of the nations" of ALL our countries
men who should have been factory managers, researchers, doctors, scientists, good politicians, whatever, wiped out
the cream of the crop, butchered.
leaving inbred scumbags and jackasses to flower like weeds, no longer competing against COMPETENT and committed people
you can make some argument for mass bombing of japan, but even there it's not as great as is thought in many debates once you go look at the evidence, evidence the bozos in charge KNEW about at the time...and has since been largely ignored because it brings into question the colossal waste of lives
those bomber crews were..."urinated away" to put it in the vernacular

as said, the one very useful thing the bomber fleets could do, was mine laying, that WAS extremely efficient
oh it also very efficiently handed a LOT of money to corporations who have since, oddly enough, come to own the asses of our politicians...funny that, isn't it? :p
memoirs, interviews and talks with those around at the time show the incredibly purblind arrogance and stupidity of the Air Ministry and RAF top brass before and during WW2
absolutely intransigent blockhead scumbags who should have been taken out and SHOT for treason and sabotage, sigh
morons did everything they could to try and stop the Spitfire being adopted because all they wanted and allowed, were more bombers!
they saw fighters or anything else, from the Fleet Air Arm to recon or army observation craft, as a waste of time
remember, tests such as the US did with both dive bombing and vs
ships, and experience of the Spanish Civil War, China-Japan etc had long proven things were nothing like their lunacy of "uber bombers driving enemies to ruin and defeat easily!"
please see the % of bombs that actually hit ANYWHERE near an actual target
how many aircrews were lost
cost of the bombers
cost of that ludicrous Norden bomb sight system
Etc
idjits refused to accept the reality
if in doubt of such myopia and corrupt stupidity, consider...the US torpedo scandal, a triumph of blockheads over national interest and the lives of the men at sea.
sigh such issues are course, always with us, alas, but that's only because we do not flush out and punish these scum
there's no excuse for it, this isn't ancient Rome, and unless we want to collapse like Rome, we need to put a lot of folk today in front of firing squads for the incredible corruption, blunders, waste etc
British military is effectively for example, not worth a tinkers damn nowadays if there is a real conflict or major emergency (smart ones are seriously EXTREMELY worried, to the point of outright fear)
geegaws and nukes and over priced junk, with almost jack squat stores left, or protection of the coast with the army dispersed to every corner of the globe and cut to ludicrous levels, and so on and so on.
lol nowadays, I've often said we may as well be dropping GOLD BARS on the likes of ISIS etc due to the mad costs involved, yeesh!
lessons learned from WW1 and 2, etc are not being considered.
those were not "triumphs", those were horrendous DISASTERS that had no reason to be anything like as bad if not for the intransigent stupidity arrogance and corruption of those in power
all that matters nowadays in the Halls of Power, is that the Elite are spared having to pay any tax or face the Rule of Law
and we know where THAT leads.
I for one do not wish to live through the "Fall of Rome MKII" ! :p
back to Safehold, lol, some fun and sanity!

Emperor Zhou-Zwo is gonna waste a fortune on his "risikiflotte" because that and other things will spiral in costs materiele, money, time and lives.
but hey, he's a scumbag and if he ends up being hung by his ankles from a petrol (Praigyr?) station by enraged South Harchong folk one day...that's ok!

