Another very difficult thread going on here.
Again, we found ourselves before an issue we can give as many approaches as individuals are around here.
I think it was here where I read someone saying the German doctrine of putting the entire bomber crew virtually in the nose section of the bombers to boost morale (Ju88 and Do17 during the Battle of Britain) was a silly thing to do, for the crew could get wiped out on one single pass of the British interceptors.
I do think that is misleading. The guns of the RAF interceptors during the Batlle of Britain were even ligther than those the German bombers had for defensive action: .303 cal vs. 7.92 mm.
I have been told the Battle of Britain has got its tales as well. The RAF fighters could hardly blow the German bombers out of the sky with their very light guns, and records of heavily damaged He111´s, Ju88´s and Do17´s making it back to base in France are plentiful.
Many of the German bombers lost over England were more in the so heavily damaged situation they simply had to try a force landing, and not necessarily plummeted down in flames. I have seen dozens of photos of German bombers lost over England, and in fact, the vast majority of such pics show the German pilot force landed its damaged bomber, the propellers twisted backwards during the landing.
Furthermore, the Ju88 and the Do17, once their bombloads had been delivered were fast and very manouverable. Surely not faster than the Hurricane and the Spifire, but never as dramaticly slow as B-17 or a B-24 facing a Bf109 or a Fw190; speed is not everything though.
There are records of British pilots who got nastily surprised by the ability of the Ju88 and the Do17 to evade them.
So, as an individual crewman of a bomber (personal interest) I´d rather be on a German Ju88 or Do17 during the Battle of Britain and not in the massive clumsy heavy four engined B-17 or B-24 from 1943 and on facing the cannon armed Bf109s and Fw190s and the 88 Flak batteries. My chances of survival are higher on a Ju88 or Do17 than in a USAAF heavy.
It is clear to me that even by having such a massive size and defensive armament (i.e. B17 and B24), therefore implying a bigger effort in bringing them down, the German fighter pilots were far better at bomber destruction duties than the RAF boys were. The Germans carried a far superior bomber destroyer capability than that displayed by the British pilots over England in 1940.
For tactical purposes surely the heavy bombers win for they have a far bigger bombload and are able to bring more destruction. Still, the accuracy of the heavies of the 8th and 15th Air Forces left a lot to be desired.
So someone said putting the whole crew in the nose section to boost morale is a silly thing. The USA doctrine of putting 10 men all along that large tube packed with defensive guns enters the domain of amusement. Each bomber brought down means a lot of people lost. Lose only ten bombers, a small number of aircraft if you will, and it shall mean 100 men did not return; not precisely a morale boosting element for those crews returning from mission and finding 100 beds will be empty for the night.