The eternal question of aircraft vs tanks came up during the recent stream with Valeriy Zamulin about the Battle of Kursk.
"I saw an analysis I think in August-September of 1943 of using HE bombs on enemy concentrations of armoured vehicles. They specified in brackets: tanks, APCs, accompanying wheeled vehicles. It clearly said that the effectiveness of HE bombs against enemy armoured groups was rather low. Causes:
- The armoured groups are highly mobile. Consider this: you order the strike against tanks, point it out, the order goes through several HQs (army, front, airstrip) and by the time the airplanes gather and arrive there is no one there.
- The Germans used concealment well, like smokescreens. It was also rare for significant armoured forces to be concentrated on a narrow section of the front. If the Germans came up with an armoured group it would immediately scatter and when bombed (according to our statistics) about 5% were hit. "