re: #130 erik_t

Not really. German metallurgy was not in any state to produce jet engines good enough to intercept bombers we’d soon have in service — indeed, nobody’s was, not until the mid-1950s. The bombs were in the pipeline, as were the bombers.

We could have turned Germany into glowing glass, which I’d argue certainly counts as a ‘defeat’. Very little extrapolation is necessary.

Just because the RAH RAH ‘MURRICA crowd is a bunch of clueless fainting ninnies doesn’t mean that their existence nullifies actual fact-based arguments that occasionally do indicate, in a rational and dispassionate evaluation, a RAH RAH ‘MURRICA outcome.

Germany was building rocket engines, though, and follow-on versions of the ME-163 might have been an answer to any ultra high altitude threat. The other thing to remember is that accuracy from that height against hardened targets would stunk.