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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    The DB 606 "power pack" engines caught fire more than the B-29's, which is an anti-accomplishment. However, the very same engines were quite reliable on the He 119 and Me 261; the problem was that the Greif's nacelles were too tight, which forced substantial redesign of key auxiliary systems...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    It's actually Greif -- Griffin -- but the terrible puns almost literally write themselves.
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    One of the huge problems with the Nazi jet projects was there were just too many of them. Most of them were not completely insane designs, but many were far too ambitious, and more importantly, the Nazis could not possibly afford to actually build and deploy all of them. The end result was that...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    Way too specialized, however, given the very short range, limited bombload, and no weapons other the the single bomb.
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    Only one of the three Henschel Hs 132 prototypes was even close to physically complete, and no actual testing had been completed at the time the Soviets captured the development facility. Contrary to some reports that the Soviets had a complete one, the records show that both the nearly complete...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    The Breguet 810 never actually existed; it was a proposed naval variant of the Breguet 690 for the two Joffre class fleet carriers which were laid down but were only about 20% complete at the time of the French surrender. The Breguet 690 itself was originally designed for a heavy fighter...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    The French Loire-Nieuport LN.401 dive bombers took catastrophically heavy losses when used against German motorized columns; there were only two squadrons of them, and they lost two thirds of their entire strength in about a month of action, with the worst incident being 17 out of 20 dive...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    Yes, but that was only for political reasons -- the Thai government prohibited the U.S. from basing bombers in-country, so the heavily upgraded B-26K Counter-Invaders were designated "A-26A". They're quite rare -- only forty B-26s were remanufactured in this configuration, of which six survive...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    The Army Air Corps actually defined the Havoc as an "attack bomber", an unusual classification which reflected the specifications requiring both fixed forward firing machine gun armament and a light bomber class internal bomb load (2000 lbs). It was however adopted by the French as a straight up...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    Well, Wikipedia for one classes the A-20 Havoc and A-26 Invader as light bombers, as well as mentioning that most torpedo bombers could also be used as light bombers, and many of the prewar designs for twin engine heavy fighters were adapted into light bombers as well. The prewar line between...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    The Italians really had no decent light or medium bombers at all. The Breda Ba.65 and Caproni Ca.310 were both obsolete death traps; the Ba.88 was an absolute failure, as was the Piaggio P.32 and the Savoia-Marchetti SM.84.
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    Given that the WWII Italian aviation industry repeatedly and persistently failed to build viable bombers or any time, your assertion that they could "simply" do anything goes against the historical facts. The Ba.88 was the worst of the lot, but it was not an outlier.
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    Uh, no. The Ba.65 was a reasonably effective ground attack craft, but it was utterly defenseless against fighters, being slow, bulkly, and having no tail guns whatsoever. The Ba.88 was a handsome enough aircraft, but sadly an absolute failure in aviation design.
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    He's talking about the Savioa-Marchetti SM.85, of which only 34 were made because flight evaluations found that they were grossly deficient in every possible way. They had inadequate speed, inadequate rate of climb, inadequate stability while diving, excessive difficulty in pulling out from...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    The main technical issue with the 5.25" gun was that the shells were too heavy, which was severely exacerbated by the physical mountings being excessively cramped. The unusual 5.25" caliber was selected for these weapons on the basis that it provided the maximum possible weight of shell that...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    The Dido class was perpetually handicapped by the lack of adequate 5.25" gun production (they were supposed to have five twin turrets but most of them only had four because Britain literally could not build enough guns) and by the severe technical flaws of the 5.25" gun itself. The Atlanta...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    You are correct overall, but this detail is incorrect. The Long Lance was far too large and heavy to be used by an aircraft; there was an attempt to design an oxygen fuelled heavy aerial torpedo -- the Type 94 -- but it never worked. The Japanese aerial torpedo used throughout WWII was the...
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    Dive bombers replaced all light bombers before WW2

    Yes, but that was a lucky hit while said battleship was moored in harbor and thus a completely static target. Two Stukas, one of which was Rudel, scored 1000-kilogram bomb hits to the forward superstructure, causing a fire which spread into the forward magazines. Rudel was so target fixated on...
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