Doolittle also released the escorts from just staying with the bomber formations to seeking out the Germans before they got close to the bomber formations. The Luftwaffe was decimated when that tactic was employed...and the mission count went to 30.
Boy, was my dad pissed over that. He was at 24 and they added 6.
Goering said that he knew the jig was up when he saw fighters over Berlin.
The mission of the 8th Air Force prior to D-Day was to defeat the Luftwaffe fighter arm. The bombers were live bait, and they knew it. They attacked Berlin because from 1943 onward the Luftwaffe would not send up fighters to intercept bombers except over Berlin. The P-51s were not there to defend the bombers, their mission was to shoot down Luftwaffe fighters.