<text id=00he0801><title>Learning the Lessons</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Learning the Lessons</hdr><body>
<p>The Royal Air Force had gone to war in 1939 with much the same attitude that the Americans brought to England in 1942. RAF bombers flew unescorted daylight raids, trusting to speed and defensive armament to fight off the Luftwaffe. Neither was adequate. The Germans battered Bomber Command beyond its ability to recover rapidly. Daylight raids quickly gave way to night missions. In the first heavy night strike against Ruhr Valley targets, the 99 bombers dispatched came through with negligible losses. From then, Bomber Command struck at night.
</p>
<p>The Luftwaffe countered. The Kammhuber Line, an in-depth defense, was established; it used radar tracking to guide interceptors to the RAF bomber stream. On one raid to the Ruhr, Bomber Command lost 21 percent of an attacking force. To add insult, a study of post-strike photographs of the raids showed that nine out of ten crews were dropping their bombs more than five miles from the targets.
</p>
<p>By the end of 1941, the Luftwaffe had regained air superiority at night over the continent. Bomber Command's performance was disappointing, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill suggested they spend the coming winter months gathering strength for a spring offensive. In March 1942, Bomber Command bounced back with a devastating strike against the Renault factories at Billancourt, near Paris. The plant was out of production for four months, and the Wehrmacht lost deliveries equivalent to the tank and transport requirements of five fully motorized divisions.
