The Bomber Offensive That Never Took Off: Italy's Regia Aeronautica in 1940

An organization of centralized 'commands' (e.g. Bomber Command, Fighter Command, Coastal Command), as in Britain's Royal Air Force, might have made more conceptual and organizational sense, though since only RAF Fighter Command can be said to have made successful use of its organizational autonomy in the second half of 1940 (and then more or less lost the plot in 1941), the territorially based structure of the Regia Aeronautica may be taken as an indication of lack of conceptual vision rather than in itself necessarily an organizational disadvantage.7 More relevant to the Regia Aeronautica's failure was the actual detail of the territorial distribution of combat units.\n34 There was also the problem with pattern bombing that if the lead bomber mistook the target, the rest of the formation followed suit.