Exactly. It makes it a moot point without allowing the change of any other factors because that's simply not enough to make any demonstrable difference to change an outcome as big being "successful" in the air war. He stated "the Luftwaffe's strategy" and that was partially thwarted by Hitler, Milch, Himmler, Speer and even Goring to greater or lesser degrees. With those perameters people like Galland, Wever, Kammhuber or Udet could never change "Luftwaffe strategy" to a degree sufficient to make huge differences.

While the above mentioned certainly would have done things differently and better it is impossible to say so because our parameters of strategy involve Hitler, Milch, Himmler, Speer and Goring and there is no geting around them.

"Given history, what could have been changed in the Luftwaffe's strategy to make them successful, if anything?"

And it comes down to every one's definition of what successful is. Did they usually do the best with the assets they had? Probably. Since it is far out of any Luftwaffe commander's control to dictate production, modifications, deployment, approve new designs, etc. we are stuck ever returning to our controling influences Hitler, Milch, Himmler, Speer and Goring who flock things up.

The 1st time I talked with Gen. Galland in the 1980s some similar form of this question was asked....and no doubt by everybody who interviewed him. Even when Galland was made General of the Fighter Pilots he didn't have power to change the already set organizational details of the whole damned branch of service.

Going back and pointing out faults that were not readily apparent at the time 65 years ago is more voodoo logic. Deciding now which planes should have been deployed is a complete unfair advantage since back at that time no one had the luxury we do today of knowing how things would turn out!

No one knew the Bf 110 would suck in 1939. In the 1930s the worldwide concept was that a fast bomber would always get through popping off enemy interceptors like flies. So how can we fault the Luftwaffe or any other air force for then "needing" escorts. Plenty of puny Brit bombers that couldn't hold their own against fighter attack existed. Should we damn the RAF that they should have known? How is that fair?

The Americans were almost stupid enough to believe the prevailing 1930s propaganda that bigger bombers with more guns would get through without escorts. The inneffective Luftwaffe in late 1943 nearly annihilated them to the point that the 8th was a hair's breath away from switching to night time only bombing.

Every country experimented with things that ultimately proved unsatisfactory. How can we say that they missed development of the jet engine when they were the 1st to field both fighter and bomber aircraft with superior 2nd generational engines and aircraft in prototype stage in 1945?

Damning the Luftwaffe's aircraft in hindsight is fruitless since the decisions of what planes could or should be produced and with with what characteristics wasn never in the hands of the Luftwaffe beyond tokenism. Hitler, Milch, Himmler, Speer and Goring were the characters with input on what aircraft were produce, where they were deployed along with all organizational BS of the Luftwaffe itself.

Men Like Gunther Lutzow, Adolf Galland, Ernst Udet, Werner Moelders, Gunther Rall and quite a few others had organizational and leadership skills along with strategic and tactical battle planning yet they had no say in how may Ju 87 were built or where they were deployed, how pilots were trained or decided what technology should be pursued. The Luftwaffe was simply not set up in that way any more than the RAF or USAF was!

What the Luftwaffe did was exploit their resources as best was was possible and deploy them in the best ways to do damage to the enemy.

We can't damn the Luftwaffe because they didn't develop a strategic bomber when the main proponent for such, Walther Wever, was killed in 1936. If Billy Mitchell had died around then how great, or poor, would the USAF have been?

Luftwaffe wing commanders and squadron commanders prosecuted the air war to be best of their abilities with the resources they had at any given time.

Given the circumsatnces of the way things were there is nothing in strategy or tactics that anyone below Reichsmarshall could have changed. And even Goring was thwarted by Hitler and Speer!

It was General Galland himself that reaffirmed the fact that to me "even had the 262s been in service a year earlier the outcome would have been the same, ableit, the war would have gone somewhat longer."

"Hitler and Goring bickering. Milch personally meddling in certain projects. Speer out maneuvering them all in order to keep the industry moving. It was like a dishonest carnival. Everything was rigged. It was madness. And all the while units like JG 7 were beating the odds in one small corner of the war."

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