GERMANY’S LONG-RANGE BOMBER CONUNDRUM
Historians generally agree that the seeds of Nazi Germany’s defeat in the World War II were sown during the Battle of Britain. Royal Air Force fighters and anti-aircraft weapons downed so many black-crossed Luftwaffe planes that the Germans ended their bid for mastery of the air over the English Channel and the British Isles. Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain, was shelved and never resurrected.
Perhaps, though, the defeat of the Luftwaffe in the great air battle was a foregone conclusion. Was Germany destined to lose the Battle of
