Yeah. Maybe we need a new thread.

There was an Italian military theorist in the 20's who proposed that fleets of heavy bombers would become the decisive weapon of future wars. He was not 100% right about that, but the Americans and British decided to go that way, and it proved to be a good decision on their part. The Germans decided to go the way of a short range tactical airforce, and it worked very well until they were faced with bombing England into submission. They didn't really have the right planes for that job. They could also have well used a large strategic bomber force to hit the Russian industries deep in the interior of Russia.

Another mistake the Germans made was they fell too much in love with the concept of dive-bombing. While it resulted in superb tactical effectiveness with the Stuka and the Ju 88, it thoroughly screwed up the development of their one true heavy bomber, the He 177, and resulted in that plane becoming a disastrous failure.