Mark, even in the first phase, there was no need for 1000 bomber raids scattering the bombs all over the landscape. Nor the changing of strategy every several months. I suspect that the Rhur could had been strangled by 1942 or 1943 had the RAF struck to bombing the marshaling yards and mining the Rhine and canals leading out of it.
And I remember one of the posts here which presented the gains from scaling back the bloated OTL Bomber command - that was tens of thousands of men!
I will read the PDF later.
Borys