Can strategic bombing win a war?

Lord Crayfish wrote:

Suppose a major war between two large nations in a Historic World War map.

The relevant powers are: a coalition of France, Britain, and Russia on one side, and Yugoslavia, Germany-Poland, and Italy on the other. Japan (played by me) is currently hedging its bets as to whether to invade lightly defended Russia. It can easily do so and hold it for a few days but Russia may later retaliate. No other significant powers are active outside Europe but Japan, Australia, and Canada.

Not including the colonies, there are two front lines on land borders stretching from Lille to Nice on one side, and from East Prussia to Crimea on the other. The colonies are either unreachable or have already been snaffled by either side.

The continental front lines are currently in stalemate, with land and sea forces very evenly matched, and no significant movement has happened for 3 or 4 IRL days (just like WWI). At present a breakthrough is impossible until significant disparity can be built up along part of the front (I am shared map with all, and cannot see any such force concentration). However, there as relatively little anti-air defence behind the fronts, which means — assuming the front line's air defences can be passed over without the force being intercepted — sufficient strategic bombing from either side could be implemented. Little or no anti-air is located in most peoples' cities.

Now, my question is: is it possible to win a war by strategic bombing? Can sufficient destruction either or industry or factories be carried out to entirely cripple the enemy war effort? And, most importantly: once this destruction is carried out, how should the devastation of the economy be exploited?

As I understand it, you are the only remaining neutral in a war that is happening very far from your home. So how exactly are you going to interfere; will you pick either side? And if so, what will the target of your bombers be? The majority of industry seems to be in Europe, which is very far from Japan? Do you have allies who will provide basing facilities, and will they defend your air force when the enemy counters it?

Well it takes time to conduct a strategic bombing campaign. There's still time for the defending side to get air defenses in place after the initial operations start. After that, it would basically depend on whether the attacking side manages to establish air dominance. When they do and they can start seriously bombing industry to the point were production gets severly hampered, it is possible; but the key is that first phase.