Air Power.

This is coolbert:

Thanks to the magazine, "America in WWII" in this case:

From the de-briefings of the most senior German officers in the aftermath of the Second World War [WW2] - - "reasons" as to WHY Germany lost the war:

"Allied air power was the greatest single reason for the German defeat" - - Kesselring.

"This is especially true with reference to attacks on the fuel industry . . . which by the end of the war proved to be the decisive factor." - - Vietinghoff.

"The front died of slow starvation" . . . "ever increasing disruption of plant and transport facilities." - - Wolff.

All three persons, of course, important German commanders during the Italian Campaign.

The allied air campaign, both strategic and tactical, critical to victory. Victory was an assured thing no matter what [?], but a process greatly facilitated and accelerated due to the preponderance of allied air forces - - air superiority and eventual air supremacy being more less guaranteed from the period of 1944 onward to eventual victory in the spring of 1945.

Those massive strategic bomber fleets of the western allies [U.S. and Britain], a thousand strong massed for a single raid beginning in 1944, exacting a terrible toll on German industry and fuel production, severe disruption of the transport system also a major factor.

[strategic bombardment of German targets almost solely a matter for the western allies, the Soviets throughout the entire war not possessing a long-range bomber in the numbers adequate enough to achieve similar results.]

And of course, as noted by Albert Speer but not taken into account by the USSBS study, the Reich requiring a MILLION MAN ARMY with impedimenta to defend against the allied aerial onslaught. This including all the day fighters [ground crews], night fighters [ground crews], anti-aircraft-artillery [AAA] and crews, searchlight batteries, radar installations and manning staff, air wardens, firefighters, etc. The entire panoply of personnel and equipment immense and a severe drain on German resources.

[during the Vietnam war, the North Vietnamese also required a massive number of troops to guard against American bombing! Protecting targets throughout all of North Vietnam necessitated a force on the ground of about 700,000 men [women too]! A diversion of resources of great consequence!]

Some skeptics have even have suggested that the allied bombing offensive against Germany and the German military was AT BEST ineffective and often counter-productive! The German generals beg to differ?

You have to judge for yourself.

coolbert.