Escort Operations: Allied & Axis

I was thinking about the tactics used for escorting bombers on both Allied / Axis sides: While I generally have some information about how the USAAF carried out escort operations, I'm not really all that knowledgeable about how the RAF carried them out, let alone the Luftwaffe, IJNAS/IJAAS, and the Italians (if applicable).

Looking at the Allied side of things, making some educated guesses, and some data I've accumulated

1. USAAF
   • Bombers flew predominantly in daytime, which made escort a greater issue than the RAF
   • Fighters generally flew above the bombers by about 2000-3000' (lower-limit) to 5000' (upper-limit)
   • Escort methods usually involved
     • S-weaving to allow a high TAS/CAS while staying with the bombers
     • Zemke's Fan: Fighters that would surge ahead of the formation and sweep fighters out of the way
     • Race-track patterns: They'd fly along side the bomber formations overtaking from the rear, then making a 180 and coming down the front on the other side, then repeating
     • Flying along side the bombers: This involved the B-29 and Mosquitos (they were British, but P-51's escorted them, though the Mosquitos had to slow down a little).
   • There were also fighter-sweeps carried out that appeared to be independent of the bomber formations to simply wear out enemy fighter forces.
2. RAF
   • Most RAF operations took place at night and, either operated
     • Without escort
     • With night-fighters being used in the following ways
       • Free-roving escort to pick off enemy night-fighters
       • Stalking night-fighter bases and picking them off as they takeoff
       • Flights that involve flying a distance away from the bomber stream, and acting as a barrier to enemy night fighters to thin out what they'd encounter
   • The RAF did have some operations that occurred in day-time, mostly in 1939-1940, and then around 1944 in large numbers. From what it would appear.
     • Most descriptions describe the fighters sweeping ahead of the bombers, possibly passing over on the way to do it: I don't recall much description of them using S-weaving like we did

I could very well be wrong.

As for the Luftwaffe: From what I remembered, they used the Bf/Me-110's for close escort because they had a lot of range and radio equipment to better stay in communication with bombers and home. They unfortunately lacked agility, and were supported by Me-109's. I'm not sure if either used S-weaving or simply flew in waves.

As for the Japanese and USN, I'm not sure.

Zipper730 said:

I was thinking about the tactics used for escorting bombers on both Allied / Axis sides: While I generally have some information about how the USAAF carried out escort operations, I'm not really all that knowledgeable about how the RAF carried them out, let alone the Luftwaffe, IJNAS/IJAAS, and the Italians (if applicable).

Looking at the Allied side of things, making some educated guesses, and some data I've accumulated

1. USAAF
   • Bombers flew predominantly in daytime, which made escort a greater issue than the RAF
   • Fighters generally flew above the bombers by about 2000-3000' (lower-limit) to 5000' (upper-limit)
   • Escort methods usually involved
     • S-weaving to allow a high TAS/CAS while staying with the bombers
     • Zemke's Fan: Fighters that would surge ahead of the formation and sweep fighters out of the way
     • Race-track patterns: They'd fly along side the bomber formations overtaking from the rear, then making a 180 and coming down the front on the other side, then repeating
     • Flying along side the bombers: This involved the B-29 and Mosquitos (they were British, but P-51's escorted them, though the Mosquitos had to slow down a little).
   • There were also fighter-sweeps carried out that appeared to be independent of the bomber formations to simply wear out enemy fighter forces.
2. RAF
   • Most RAF operations took place at night and, either operated
     • Without escort
     • With night-fighters being used in the following ways
       • Free-roving escort to pick off enemy night-fighters
       • Stalking night-fighter bases and picking them off as they takeoff
       • Flights that involve flying a distance away from the bomber stream, and acting as a barrier to enemy night fighters to thin out what they'd encounter
   • The RAF did have some operations that occurred in day-time, mostly in 1939-1940, and then around 1944 in large numbers. From what it would appear.
     • Most descriptions describe the fighters sweeping ahead of the bombers, possibly passing over on the way to do it: I don't recall much description of them using S-weaving like we did

I could very well be wrong.

As for the Luftwaffe: From what I remembered, they used the Bf/Me-110's for close escort because they had a lot of range and radio equipment to better stay in communication with bombers and home. They unfortunately lacked agility, and were supported by Me-109's. I'm not sure if either used S-weaving or simply flew in waves.

As for the Japanese and USN, I'm not sure.

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Don't forget that while RAF Bomber Command was waging its night-time war No 2 Group and later 2TAF were doing raids in Blenheims, Bostons and Venturas over Northern France and the low-countries, even going to the Ruhr a few times (the famous raid on the Cologne power stations for example). These were escorted by Spitfires, Hurricanes and Whirlwinds. Because of the short-range of the British fighters (which restricted their ability to do prolonged combat or fly at the same speed as the bombers for long periods) they often provided cover in "relays" - One wing going out with the bombers, another taking over over the target and another meeting the bombers on the way back. Tactics were dictated by the nature of the mission - in '42 and '43 the object was often not to actually bomb anything but to use the bombers as bait to bring the German fighter force to combat, to keep them in the West rather than be sent East to fight the Russians. - In these cases, you would have huge formations of fighters protecting very small forces of bombers. Later when the faster Mosquitos were used they still often had a top-cover of Spitfires for shorter-range low-level missions.

Also, remember that the RAF also escorted US bombers - They often provided the reception force to meet the US bombers coming back from their raids and get any German fighter following them.

Some info on the Cologne power station raid here... Intense RAF daylight bombing raids on Germany

Dinger said:

Don't forget that while RAF Bomber Command was waging its night-time war No 2 Group and later 2TAF were doing raids in Blenheims, Bostons and Venturas over Northern France and the low-countries, even going to the Ruhr a few times (the famous raid on the Cologne power stations for example). These were escorted by Spitfires, Hurricanes and Whirlwinds. Because of the short-range of the British fighters (which restricted their ability to do prolonged combat or fly at the same speed as the bombers for long periods) they often provided cover in "relays" - One wing going out with the bombers, another taking over over the target and another meeting the bombers on the way back. Tactics were dictated by the nature of the mission - in '42 and '43 the object was often not to actually bomb anything but to use the bombers as bait to bring the German fighter force to combat, to keep them in the West rather than be sent East to fight the Russians.

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Did they use essing for escort, or did they simply fly at their tactical speed in a massive number of waves to ensure that the bombers were covered?

Some info on the Cologne power station raid here... Intense RAF daylight bombing raids on Germany

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I didn't even know the B-17's could reliably get up to 35000'-37000' prior to bomb-release.

Zipper730 said:

Did they use essing for escort, or did they simply fly at their tactical speed in a massive number of waves to ensure that the bombers were covered?
I didn't even know the B-17's could reliably get up to 35000'-37000' prior to bomb-release.

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On the Cologne Raid the close escort was provided by fourteen Whirlwind of 263 Squadron. The Blenheims crossed the North Sea at only 50 feet flying in two boxes. Half the Whirlwinds flew at the same height and speed as the Blenheims between the boxes and the other half positioned themselves slightly "up sun". When the enemy coast was reached the Whirlwinds went up to 1,000 feet (the Blenheims remained "hedge-hopping) and "weaved" above the bombers. - No German fighters were encountered by the Whirlwinds, so as planned, the broke off the escort four miles North-West of Antwerp and followed the Scheldt river back to the North Sea, shooting-up river barges as they did so. I've got no details of what the numerous Spitfire Squadrons did, I suspect they operated in series of overlapping fighter "sweeps".

The early, small number of "Fortress I" aircraft operated by the RAF at the time had little armour, no tail guns or turrets, only .303 guns rather than .50 and usually carried only a small bombload. They relied almost entirely on flying at high altitude for defence. They did not fly with any escort. Of course they never really came close to hitting anything dropping bombs from that altitude, and often the target was obscured by cloud or industrial haze anyway. They were just "pinprick" attacks by small numbers (sometimes only single aircraft) There is a newsreel of their first raid on Youtube, but don't be fooled by the propaganda "massive bombing raid" - only 20 Fortress Is were used by the RAF. The British were hoping to have their own "Stratospheric bomber" in the shape of the pressurised Wellington Mk V and VI WELLINGTON BOMBER: HIGH ALTITUDE VARIANTS

It does not add anything to the thread about Escort tactics - but you might also like this extraordinarily detailed article on "Operation Oyster" - another British low-level attack. This time on the Philips Eindhoven plant - Someone has really gone to town on this Wikipedia article - Operation Oyster - Wikipedia

Again, a newsreel to go with it.

Dinger said:

On the Cologne Raid the close escort was provided by fourteen Whirlwind of 263 Squadron. The Blenheims crossed the North Sea at only 50 feet flying in two boxes. Half the Whirlwinds flew at the same height and speed as the Blenheims between the boxes and the other half positioned themselves slightly "up sun". When the enemy coast was reached the Whirlwinds went up to 1,000 feet (the Blenheims remained "hedge-hopping) and "weaved" above the bombers. - No German fighters were encountered by the Whirlwinds, so as planned, the broke off the escort four miles North-West of Antwerp and followed the Scheldt river back to the North Sea, shooting-up river barges as they did so. I've got no details of what the numerous Spitfire Squadrons did, I suspect they operated in series of overlapping fighter "sweeps".

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Fascinating how operations were carried out.

RAF seemed to incorporate quite a versatile range of operations into one

1. Primary: Bomber Cover
   • Escort
     1. Rendezvous with bombers and fly at their speed and altitude
     2. Transition to top-cover, and accelerate to tactically usable speeds
   • Overlapping series of fighter sweeps: Use large numbers of sweeps of fighters flying at tactically-usable speeds to ensure the bombers are covered the whole way.
   • Notes
     1. Always keep the sun at your back in either case
     2. The escort profile seems similar to ours except that if I recall we'd use base & island defense to cover the bombers on the way out; then have the escort rendezvous with the bombers at intended altitude and tactically usable speed; then initiate S-weaving to stay with the bombers. The USAAF usually would position fighters between 2000'-3000' to 5000' above.
2. Secondary (Strafing): Once the escort's done, hammer some targets of opportunity.
   • Questions
     1. Did we do this right away? I know we eventually adopted this into our operations as time went on.
     2. I assume we knew the British did this if they had footage like this of their exploits.

The early, small number of "Fortress I" aircraft operated by the RAF at the time had little armour, no tail guns or turrets, only .303 guns rather than .50 and usually carried only a small bombload. They relied almost entirely on flying at high altitude for defence. They did not fly with any escort.

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So, the altitudes were a function of being lighter? I would assume the limiting variables were range: I say that for the following reasons...

1. Flying higher theoretically gives you greater range as you can fly at a higher TAS up to at least the critical altitude: Critical altitude varies with power settings, the higher the MP, the lower the critical altitude; the lower the MP, the higher the critical altitude, and cruise settings are generally lower than maximum continuous, military rated, takeoff, and wartime-emergency power.
2. Flying above the critical altitude can, at least sometimes, increase range as, while it lowers TAS, it also lowers fuel-burn since there's less air (for the same fuel/air ratio, you end up burning less fuel)
3. The time to climb can reduce range since you expend more energy in the climb than the cruise portion of the flight: If this becomes excessive, you'll end up being better off flying at lower altitudes. This became a problem with the B-29's (If I recall, the only range benefit to climbing above the critical altitude as if you were going to fly 5500 miles, which was beyond what the plane could carry a purposeful load -- if any).

Of course they never really came close to hitting anything dropping bombs from that altitude, and often the target was obscured by cloud or industrial haze anyway. They were just "pinprick" attacks by small numbers (sometimes only single aircraft)

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The accuracy of the RAF in 1941 left a lot to be desired: It had to do with limits in training in night bombing, long-distance navigation (there were even claims that there was sabotage efforts against the RAE and, prior to June, 1941, the USSR *was* on the Axis' side).

The British were hoping to have their own "Stratospheric bomber"

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Yup...