Bomber Harris oversold what his forces could do - bombing accuracy generally was shithouse - it took specialist units like Pathfinders to hit anything other than broad areas - If cities were the target - no worries bombs could be unloaded on a city as long as your navigator got you to the right one - I am not trying to belittle what our forces did against fighters and flak - casualty rates were high - life expectancy short - note how after D-Day when our troops were bogged down against hard German defences - bombers were useless due to being too inaccurate to assist in that tactical situation - that is without bombing Allied lines - remember to the early 1942 "Channel dash" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Dash when RAF with a choice of weapons from different sized bombs - torpedoes - could not stop the German Navy heavy units from getting from Brest to their home ports in broad daylight.
