the lancaster kicks ass
Major General
- 19,937
- Dec 20, 2003
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
The bomb laod of the B-17 was not so bad.
The US knew how to use the B-17, the Brits did not know how to use it and thus had to learn from the US
The UK did not use bomber formations correctly when it came to the B-17 and thus lost a lot of them
UK started to use the fromations
they asked the US if they would bomb during the day because they lost so many bombers, so the US actualy got the sh*tty job
Well your bomb load can be great, but if your bomber is not well defended it is not a great bomber.
evangilder said:Well said, Twitch. I think this "which one is better" is kind of pointless. Everyone has their opinion, which they are welcome to have. We all have our certain biases toward one airplane versus another. The point is that all three were used to obtain the one outcome..victory. They all performed well for what their jobs were.
Henk, I think you need to read up a bit more on the bombing campaign over Europe. Someo fthe info you have posted is pretty inaccurate. Nobody asked the Americans to bomb by day, the 8th AF chose to do it. Losses during daylight raids were atrocious and as Lanc pointed out, it damn near led to the end of daylight bombing in Europe. A good read about that is "The Wrong Stuff" by Truman Smith. As he puts it, it was all a big experiment.
The fact of the matter is that it really didn't matter how much firepower you put on a bomber. It was slow and not nimble. The idea was that if enough guns were put in there, it would ward off the fighters. Well guess what? It didn't really work. Attack a B-17 or B-24 from the rear, blast out the tail gunner and you have free reign to bring it down. There are several videos posted here of that very scenario. Box formations help some, but you are still going to be screwed if you end up as "tail end Charlie".
What worked best in the Pacific? Look at what Curt LeMay did with the bombing of Japan. He took most of the guns out of the B-29s and bombed from low altitude at night.
Without fighter escort and/or complete control of the air, your bombing campaign will not be successful. History has proven that. Today, strike aircraft go in at night to remove the threats of AAA, missile and SAM sites and anything else they can find before the big boys come in. A lesson well learned and applied today.
Erich said:hate to say this , but ............. right on the monies gents. Too many silly comparison threads started : Which type A a/c is better than another type A a/c. what a bunch of needless crock and all supposed proved by schematics and facts taken from books.
who gives a frickin care. the Allies won, the Japanese and Germans lost. Each pilot flying an individual a/c in combat thought that theirs was the best...........no matter bomber of fighter.
geez I sound like a demon from hell