5 Favourite Planes

[the lancaster kicks ass]

generally the tail gunner was the most likely to be hit, but i think the tactics were to sweep acroos the rear of the bombers......................

 

[lesofprimus]

Ive seen both kinds of attack... High sweeping attacks, and tail on...

I would think that a slower tail end approach would more likely force the fighter damage, as opposed to a high G fast diving attack...

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but remeber that after the war someone somehow managed to work out that only 1 in every 6000 rounds fired from defensive posistions on american bombers in the ETO actually found their target.....................

 

[lesofprimus]

This i can believe... You had a better chance of gettin syphilis from a sheep than shoot down an attacking fighter....

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

teir main role was to deter the attackers, i mean, would you rather go for a bomber that will fire at you, or one that wont..................

 

[lesofprimus]

A wall of lead is a great deterrent to any fighter pilot....

 

[Lightning Guy]

I wouldn't hold to that sheep-syphilis comment though. The claims of enemy fighters shot down by American bombers may have been exaggerated, but they were considerable. I think the variety of weapons the Luftwaffe tried (such as 210mm rockets, large caliber cannons, etc.) illustrate how effective the combat boxes were.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but don't you think that carrying 1.5 tons of ammo on the average mission is a bit extreme when you're carrying 6000lbs or less of bombs??

 

[lesofprimus]

LOL good point.....

And the sheep/syphllis comment was a joke LG...

 

[Lightning Guy]

Not necessarily when that 1.5 tons of ammo allows you to bomb in daylight producing greater accuracy.

 

[lesofprimus]

Ive been reading alot about German pilots recently.. And a surprisingly high number of Aces went down to the gunners on some of them bombers... I was surprised.... Guys with 80 kills.... and more...

 

[plan_D]

Les, LG can't get jokes don't bother with them.

Well it's all luck if you get hit by a bomber or not, so I'm not surprised.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

Not necessarily when that 1.5 tons of ammo allows you to bomb in daylight producing greater accuracy.

but they still needed fighter escort..................

 

[Lightning Guy]

Not saying they didn't. But they did considerably better than British or German attempts at flying daylight raids.

 

[plan_D]

British didn't have fighter escort during the early daylight raids. And the German bombers were much lighter than American bombers so they were never going to be successful.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

Not saying they didn't. But they did considerably better than British or German attempts at flying daylight raids.

the B-17 was designed as a daylight bomber, and you're right, it was one of the best daylight bombers of the war, the lancaster and halifax were designed as night bombers, as such they didn't need to be so overloaded with guns that there was no room left for bombs......................

 

[plan_D]

As for the German bombers, they were tactical close support bombers. Not suited for strategic bombing campaigns.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

and ask yourself, would the B-17 have been as good as the lancaster or halibag at night, i doubt it....................

 

[plan_D]

Waste of time, it had a stupidily small bomb load. You'd never see a B-17 carrying a 13,200 lbs bomb.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

or a 22,000lb grand slam for that matter.......................