In the end, dispersal “defeated itself.” When the German transportation system was decimated by Allied bombing and strafing in late 1944, it became impossible to keep the final assembly plants supplied with the parts to produce finished aircraft. Overrated at the time by Eighth Air Force leaders, and underrated ever since by historians, Big Week was neither a victory nor a loss for the Americans. It was merely the opening engagement of what would be the most prolonged and decisive air battle of World War II.
