The combined offensive distorted German military strategy by imposing a heavy cost in active and passive antiaircraft defense. One of the keys to Germany’s early battlefield successes was the employment of fighters, fighter-bombers, and medium bombers in support of ground forces. The Allied bombing forced the German leadership to switch aircraft back to the defense of the Reich and to reduce sharply the proportion of output devoted to frontline bombers and fighter-bombers, as table 3.3 demonstrates. This had the immediate effect of limiting severely the offensive airpower available on the
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