Comparative Study of B-17 vs B-24

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I met a pilot from the 24th last night, a man who flew the -17, -24, -25 and the -47..... He said the B-24 was his favorite craft to fly......

I asked him about the opposistion he faced, and he said that the Sturm Fw's were the worst thing he faced, next to flak.....

Nice fella, but the guy was as deaf as a doorknob tho....
 
Les, the 24th ? squadron or bomb group. something needs and extra letter I think

Again both heavies were needed to pound the Reich, the Luftwaffe day fighter force did not care which it came up against, the German crews knew they had to stop the Bomber pulks with whatever they could muster, lastly with the Me 262's, and also knowing that they were going to get jumped by the Mustang squadrons...
 
I had an old UK publication "Aircraft 69" evidently the year it was released. It had a pretty lengthy article about 100th group and their B-17s, I don't remember anything about B-24s....
 
My understanding was that at their hight they had 20 B17 and 20 B24. This was in addition to 80 Halifax and 160 Mossies of various types.
It seems as if the B24 specialised in electronic jamming equipment, but I am pretty sure other types also carried out such tasks.
 
I do know that the B-17's had anti-jammer as I have a story of one that met it's fate to the rear MG 131 on a Ju 88G-6. the crew in the Fort thought they were getting multiple flak hits..........

the mossies besdies anti-jam were focused on taking out German night fighters strolling above the RAF 4 engines flying one direction to another until finding a bogey
 
One advantage that the B-24 had was higher cruising speed. I think I'd rather be cruising along at 210mph rather than 160mph in a combat zone.
 
Something I remembered....

My uncle was a B-24 bombardier. He started out training as a flight engineer. He once told me that the B-24 had a bunch of fuel lines and valves located in the bomb-bay that leaked on occasion and sometimes filled the Bomb-bays up with fumes. At one point it was SOP to take off and land with the Bomb-bays cracked open. I don't have a B-24 fuel systems schematic to confirm this but has anyone else heard or read about this? My uncle told me that many B-24s would ignite in the air for no apparent reason!

I mentioned in another post, he was also the only survivor of an 11-man B-24 crash!
 
Graf's quote-

"To fight against twenty Russians that want to have a bite of one, or also against Spitfires, is a joy. And one doesn't know that life is not certain. But the curve into seventy Fortresses lets all the sins of one's life pass before one's eyes."-Hans Philip, JG1

We always hear about how the armament of these bombers wasn't sufficient to effectively fend off attackers, but I can only imagine how incredibly frightening it would be to go up against...lets see...70 fortresses multiplied by 13 .50 cals... 910 guns. Holy hell.
 
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