What if the RAF prioritized Coastal Command over Bomber Command?

How would the Second World War change if the RAF focused on Coastal Command rather than Bomber Command?

Britain could field more long-range maritime patrol aircraft without eliminating its heavy-bomber force, improving early U-boat attrition, reconnaissance, navigation, and warning during campaigns such as Norway.

The panel argues that Coastal Command could have received unsuitable or superseded bomber types while newer heavy bombers continued entering Bomber Command. Designing for ocean patrol might also have encouraged longer-ranged aircraft, more flying boats, and better navigation and direction-finding. The immediate payoff would be more pressure on German submarines before their crews accumulated wartime experience. Better links between air reconnaissance and the Royal Navy could also deliver earlier sighting reports in the Norwegian campaign and give the fleet more time to intercept German movements.