The USAAF bomber arm had specific priorty targets throughout the war, so they weren't just bombing cities to affect morale after Black Thursday. Electrical power production, inland transportation, petroleum production, rubber production, U-boat facilities, V weapon facilities, Berlin, jet aircraft production, and tactical objectives related to the invasion of the Continent were all priority targets throughout the war, but the primary target was always any industry building aircraft for the Luftwaffe. The entire German population and all of the industry was being directed to support National Socialist war aims, so population centers were legitimate targets as well.

During the final major German counter-offensive in the West that resulted in the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944/45, when the clouds broke and the offensive had not reached Antwerp, the Germans were doomed. Allied aviators totally dominated the skies over the battlefield because the Germans simply didn't have the planes nor the pilots to defend their ground forces. The Wehrmacht also started started to surrender in huge numbers because their will to fight had in fact been affected. Between D-Day and March 1945, 1.3 million German troops surrendered to the Western Allies. In March 1945 alone, 350,000 German soldiers surrendered to the Western Allies. The SS and Nazi political cadres fought to the bitter end in many cases because they understood what was going to happen to them if they lost. There was a rope with their name on it.