Practical operational radius of a KG in early 1940

[elbmc1969]

There's plenty of information about the ranges of the Do17, He111H, and Ju88 in 1940, but the numbers assume a single aircraft in a simple, straight-line cruise. Bombing missions are much more complex. The bombers take off one after the other as the formation circle the airfield. Aircraft have to make throttle adjustments to hold formation, which wastes fuel. Some aircraft have engines that are worn or just aren't as fuel-efficient as others. You may need to fight the weather, and cross-winds can be worse than headwinds. You need to plan for a fuel reserve for combat and to account for all of the inefficiencies.

The question is, what was the practical radius of operations for Kampfgeschwadern in early 1940, for all three major bomber types?

 

[tomo pauk]

Germans were trying to bomb north-western Scotland from Norway, meaning the radius of action was 500 km (Aberdeen - Stavanger). For more common action in 1940, distance between Caen, France and Manchester, UK is 480 km. Bruges, Belgium to Manchester, UK is 470 km.

 

[pbehn]

At night the LW could reach anywhere in the UK, they bombed Belfast in Northern Ireland, by day unescorted raids on Scotland and Northern England got hammered.

 

[pbehn]

You could say the practical radius of military operations in 1940 were from the German border to Dunkerque.

 

[Shortround6]

A bit more than that. They did manage to bomb both Shorts Factories and delay the Stirling by quite a number of months.
Granted damage assement was a bit lacking and repeat raids were often most noticeable by their absence. The effective radius was limited by other factors than the range of the bombers.

 

[elbmc1969]

I'm trying to figure out how serious the real bomber threat to Great Britain was before the fall of the Low Countries.

It seems as though the real threat was night bombing, and the Spitfires and Hurricanes were almost irrelevant to that.

 

[pbehn]

I'm trying to figure out how serious the real bomber threat to Great Britain was before the fall of the Low Countries.

It seems as though the real threat was night bombing, and the Spitfires and Hurricanes were almost irrelevant to that.

Night bombing from Germany would be slightly more effective than it was by the RAF from UK to Germany. You are only ever 70 miles from the sea in UK and coastal targets or those on a river are easier to find. If you can use a navigation beam things get better but by and large inland targets are hard to find at night unless you set them alight by day.