B-17vsLancaster

[bronzewhaler82]

the b-17 was shot down in the hundreds not thousands,and yes it was shot down pretty easy but the lanc would be shot down more

The Lancaster commanders had the sense to fly night-time raids not raids in broad daylight! a relatively slow plane like the B-17 (by 'slow' i mean compared to a fighter) would had to have had the armament it did have merely to fend off the fighters attacking! thats why the yanks suffered more losses in their bombers than we did - daylight raids? suicide raids more like!

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

thank you, and like i say, the Brits develpoed evasive monouvers, unlike the Yanks who thought it was best to stay in formation as they thought it offered more protection

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

so, i can get a 1-144 scale die-cast lancaster for £20, what do you think?

 

[cheddar cheese]

get the 1-77 scale one 8)

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

no such scale...............................

 

[bronzewhaler82]

thank you, and like i say, the Brits develpoed evasive monouvers, unlike the Yanks who thought it was best to stay in formation as they thought it offered more protection

Sorry Lanc...i know you're right but its hard to imagine an Avro Lancaster doing 'Evasive Manouvers' 8)

 

[cheddar cheese]

ok, 1-72 then.........

 

[jj1982]

i think that in the hands of a skilled pilot *British* a plane with more manouverabikity has got to be better than one with a faster speed!

 

[bronzewhaler82]

Of course - but it has to have SOME speed otherwise by the time its turned the faster plane would be out of machine gun range

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

of course, the lancaster had both amazing speed AND much armourment

 

[jj1982]

I think that the germans had a tecnique (well develepod by them anyway i thinks) with diving towards the big blue stuff in a pityfully slow plane.....then pulling back at the last moment so that the much faster plane had nowhere to go but in the drink! Quite a tricky manuovere and one that worked well in a plane with a slower speed!

 

[Gemhorse]

Getting back to it , Lanc is right - I think it took balls to fly both aircraft, day or night, but the Lancaster also helped break in the Pathfinder Force , which eventually led to really laying to waste any target Bomber Command went for. To get down and mark targets in all-weather at night was a feat that was only surpassed by the faster Mosquitos that took on that Pathfinder work as the Light-night-strike-force. Also, after D-Day , Monty had Bomber Command Lancasters doing DAYLIGHT raids just in front of the advancing allied forces. The Lancasters were used as specialist forces too , like 617 Sqn.; Dams, Tirpitz, U-boat pens and generally leaving bloody great craters 'round Germany...My only regret was they didn't start using .50 cal guns till later- and the 'Corkscrew' manoeuvre was a life-saver. B17's were better-armed and it was real skill to fly such close-formation in protective boxes- alotta lives lost though, for a lesser tonnage of bombs- I think Germany lost the war partly from sleep-deprivation due to the efforts of both Allies....

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

you make some very good points, and i agree, if one B-17 got shot down it had double the number of men on board a lancaster, which is a bad thing...................

 

[bronzewhaler82]

It is for the men onboard!

 

[Hugh Janus]

what crap aircraft to compare, the heinkel he-111 was undoubtedly the best bomber of the war

 

[Gemhorse]

Perhaps the He111 did drop a respectable amount of bombs etc. and I concede that both the He111 and Ju88 were the backbone of the German Bomber Force, in fact they were excellent aircraft to fly and loved by their crews- the Ju88 was fast too, and multi-role; BUT, collectively, RAF Bomber Command dropped nearly 500,000 Tons of bombs on Germany from October 1942 to March 1945 , and the Lancaster being the main production bomber over that period, it has to be the Best Bomber of the War. The B17 was a fine aircraft , and in no way do I negate the job they did, or the B24 for that matter, but the 8th AF didn't come near the tonnage dropped by RAF. In fact , the Allies couldn't have done it without the USAAF involvement - Where Germany bombed Britain first by day, they got shredded in the BoB, so they turned to night-bombing and it wasn't a large volume of bombs dropped- RAF Nightfighters made it difficult for them, Dr. R.V. Jones figured-out how to bend their 'KNICKLEBEIN' beam radar bombing-aid, so they shifted to fast bombers like Ju88's, Fw190's etc.-'sneak-raiders'- but eventually Germany was on the defence, their Nightfighter Force trying to cope with 1000+ RAF Bomber-raids.... So Lancaster IT IS !

 

[bronzewhaler82]

I agree - I think the Lancaster was one of the finest bombers of WW2 - as well as the Halifax, DH Mosquito, B-25, B-17, Skua, B-29 and IL2

 

[cheddar cheese]

my favourite bomber is the he-177, closely followed by the vickers windsor 8) those 2 plnes had it all, speed, range, payload, the lot!

 

[bronzewhaler82]

But nowhere near as good as a Lancaster bomber or dare I say it...a B-17

 

[cheddar cheese]

and what am i saying, the P.108 is my fave bomber 8) i mean the 177 and windsor are 2 of my favourites 8)