RAF Coastal Command Bristol Beaufighters attacking Axis shipping in 1944

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Looks like a nasty opponent but I wonder how much it improved the dismal Beaufort record. As I pointed out in the Beaufort thread, chances of survival in ship attack missions was so low that it was classified, being well under a 50% chance of making it through a tour of duty and essentially zero for two tours.

The AAA was bad enough but enemy fighters were a death sentence. Much better to have some nice company with you.

 

When used as flak-suppressing strafers at the Battle of Bismarck Sea, they were outstanding.
 
Thumpalumpacus said:
When used as flak-suppressing strafers at the Battle of Bismarck Sea, they were outstanding.
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Yep, and putting batteries of machine guns in B-25's for the same reason worked great, too.

I am not sure there was a single seat monoplane fighter in WW2 that could not defeat a Beau in daylight combat. Maybe an Oscar did not carry enough ammo, but I think it was easy meat for even a P-36. But out on the ocean fighters were much more scarce and some fighter escorts were very useful.
 

A Beaufighter was not a dogfighter, to be sure. Its niche, where it excelled, was attack. But boy howdy, it did that well.

From what I understand, Torbeaus would be accompanied by strafers armed with rockets, and that combination was pretty solid.
 
MIflyer said:
Daylight combat between a Beau and a Ju88? I guess I'd bet on the Beau. Both were "fighters" when there were no real fighters around.
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I had assumed the Ju 88 was the faster aircraft but looking at the numbers it seems it that until the G series came online it would have been unable to outrun a Beaufighter.
 
Part of the problem was lack of numbers early in the war when a handful of Beauforts was it. Once the Beaufighter was available in quantity and the Strike Wings were formed it was a different matter. I recall an account of an attack on a couple of merchant ships with a large escort of other vessels. The attack force was some torpedo carriers plus twenty or more anti-flak aircraft. As the torpedo aircraft commenced their attack, the anti-flak aircraft, in line abreast, went for the escort ships and none of the torpedo droppers were even hit.

This shows part of an attack:

 
The Strike Wings were a Coastal Command, based in Britain, thing.

In the Med and Far East they continued to be sent out in small unescorted groups on anti-shipping operations, often of 2-4 aircraft, because there was not larger convoy targets but mostly small convoys of small ships or even single vessels. In the Med in 1943/44 they suffered a lot of losses not just to flak and Me.109 fighters but also Arado 196 being used for anti submarine cover.

 
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Humm, could the P-36 had enough speed to catch with a Beaufighter?
 

Buzzing around that convoy like flies on a turd.
 
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