Randarkman posted:

The bombing campaign did have an impact on German manufacturing, just not near as great as its proponents imagined or exaggeratedly reported. And the efforts later in the war to target oil production in Romania and synthetic fuel production were quite successful if I recall correctly. Though throughout the cost to bomber crews and planes was staggering, and area bombing and destroying morale became euphemisms for bombing what were largely residential areas. Immoral or not, and much of what happened in the war was immoral, you'd be a fool to disregard the bombing campaign as not having had any impact at all.

Perhaps the most important impact it did have was to divert a very large proportion of the Luftwaffe towards defending Germany, as well as makign Germany expand considerable industrial and human effort towards air defence, the diversion of the Luftwaffe westwards was doubtless of great value to the Soviet war effort, especially their airforce which suffered staggering casualty rates at the hands of the Luftwaffe in the first few years of war. There's also the factor that bombing Germany was for a large portion of the war the only way Britain could strike at Germany, which possibly was of some importance in sustaining morale (though I would still argue the diversion of the Luftwaffe as the one important achievement of the bombing campaign).