Jerry W. Loper
Airman 1st Class
- 121
- Oct 2, 2007
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I think they may have hated flak the most.
Flak scared airmen, and they were statistically right to be disconcerted. It also substantially and consistently reduced bombing accuracy, something fighters could rarely achieve.
Cheers
Steve
Steve - I don't have much of a problem with most of your opinion but disagree the 'reduced bombing accuracy' part. The lead bombardiers had control from the IP to the bombs away point. I would bet anything in the world that if a 12 O'clock attack by fighters was boring in, compared to flak, the he would be a lot more 'distracted' by the fighters.
Lemay also decided (correctly) that the mean accuracy of German 88 and 122 mm flak guns had a low probability of a hit and rammed home the necessity of maintaining Tight formations to defend against the primary threat - LW fighters. He is the inventor of the Box/Staggered/Overlap combat formations, Lead Crew and forced adaptation to the AFC autopilot slaving bombsight to flight controls
flak was indirect fire that they could climb and decend to escape.