At the beginning of 1945 it was plain that Germany would lose the war.  The incessant air raids were inexorably destroying the Nazi war machine reducing supplies to the front line to a crawl.  Yet Germany fought doggedly on.  Its fighter pilots had known nothing different since 1939 - many of those still survivng had flown five years of combat virtually without a break.  If the Allies were controlling the skies nobody had told the seasoned Luftwaffe pilots who continued to intercept the massed daylight raids with great determination.  the long range capabilities of the 8th Air Forces may have allowed fighter escort all the way to the target and back, but the heavy bombers were still being knocked down in numbers, and the American fighter pilots had their work cut out every time the German fighters appeared.