What effect did the allied bombing campaign have on the Germans?

Answer 1

The goal of the bombing campaign was twofold: to destroy the enemies ability to continue to fight by destroying his productive capacity, and to break the morale of the enemy population and cause them to want peace.

As Allied troops fought their way into Germany in 1944-45, the advancing troops were followed closely by members of a very special group, the Strategic Bombing Survey. Their mission was to assess the effectiveness of the bombing campaign in achieving the two goals. Eminent historian Arthur Schlesinger was a member of the Strategic Bombing Survey. The report the Survey filed was startling. The Survey concluded that the bombing achieved neither of its goals. Though horrific destruction of factories, railroads, bridges, and cities in general was very widespread, German war production was actually rising right up until the end. And though some individual Germans became discouraged and disillusioned, the general morale of the German population never broke.

Part of the problem, the lack of success, was that those directing the bombing could never settle down to a single coherent targeting scheme. At one point the main targets were the German petroleum industry, and had they stuck with that the results might have been decisive, because petroleum is the lifeblood of modern armies. But just when they had the Germans almost crippled, they went on to try something else. Even so at the end of the war, though aircraft production was rising, there was no fuel for the airplanes or to train pilots, and the German army was largely dependent on horse-drawn transportation.