World war 2 was pretty much the first war where air power played a major role in it. There was reconaissance, bombing missions, dogfights, and much more. Do you think that air power played an even larger factor than the ground battle? I think it did, and the main reason why the axis lost is that the allies were able to bomb axis factories and supply lines to rubble. If Axis factories were not destroyed, I think that the Axis will have been able to produce enough arms to destroy the allies.
The Second World War was the first time, at least on a large scale, in which air superiority was decisive. The Battle of Britain, for example, was to establish air superiority by the Luftwaffe (and to a limited extent Regia Aeronautica) over the British Isles for the planned invasion (Unternehmen Seelöwe). Later in the war, such as the closing days in late 1944 and then 1945, American air superiority over Europe was a large factor. Those are just a couple examples. And, as touched upon in the original post, the strategic bombing campaign was a factor in the eventual victory of the Allied forces.
Post war surveys (US Strategic Bombing Survey) found some successes - against oil, ammunition, and truck production in Germany - and many failures, such as attacks on ball bearing plants, aircraft, and armor production. Tactical air power, local air superiority and ground support attacks contributed more to victory than the B-17's and their massive attacks on industrial targets.
