re: #110 Dark_Falcon

Another little-known WWII aircraft, the Piaggio P.108. The Soviet Union was indeed lucky that these 4 engine heavy bombers were kept in the Mediterranean theater: Had they been sent to the Eastern Front instead, the Tankograd plant at Chelabinsk would have been within their range. Had such bombers disrupted T-34 production there, Zhukov might never have been able to amass enough armor for his Operation: Saturn and Operation: Uranus counterattacks in late 1942 that trapped the German 6th Army at Stalingrad.

This presumes the could have gotten there. I’d have to rate that as about … oh, I dunno, Highly un-fucking-likely? While it’s true they built a decent bomber with good range, it couldn’t have survived without escort - we couldn’t have without resources far deeper than every other nation in WWII combined and the B-17 (for all it’s very real flaws) did have by far the best on board protection of any pre-war bomber - the losses would have ended their attempts within a month.