Glider
Captain
As a general observation I agree that a daylight raid has to have the same type of aircraft or the performance difficulties make the whole thing impractical. Its clear that fighter escort is a requirement for there to be any chance of success but that aside I doubt that the Lancaster and Halifax III would have less success than the B17/B24 combination as used in the USAAF. On daylight raids when attacked by fighters the bomber being targeted was encouraged to evade down and then use any manoeuver they wanted in particular the corkscrew. This was directly different from the US practice of holding formation and shooting it out with the fighters.
RAF bombers were encouraged to evade down below the main formation as it gave a number of advantages.
1) the most accurate shots tend to be the first and if you can get out of the stream of fire then its likely that you will receive fewer hits.
2) The fighter was drawn into the fire of the other bombers
3) A corkscrewing heavy bomber is a difficult target to hit whatever fighter your flying
4) This bought the bomber time helping the escort to intervene
5) If nothing else it took the fighter away from the other bombers, taking it out of the fight.
I believe that the loss ratios for RAF daylight raids were very similar to the USAAF as each force played to the strengths of the aircraft they had
At night there was no formation flying at all sa its impossible to fly formation if you cannot see the others that were supposed to be in the formation. Each bomber had their own timings, altitude way points etc. which kept the bomber stream tight .
RAF bombers were encouraged to evade down below the main formation as it gave a number of advantages.
1) the most accurate shots tend to be the first and if you can get out of the stream of fire then its likely that you will receive fewer hits.
2) The fighter was drawn into the fire of the other bombers
3) A corkscrewing heavy bomber is a difficult target to hit whatever fighter your flying
4) This bought the bomber time helping the escort to intervene
5) If nothing else it took the fighter away from the other bombers, taking it out of the fight.
I believe that the loss ratios for RAF daylight raids were very similar to the USAAF as each force played to the strengths of the aircraft they had
At night there was no formation flying at all sa its impossible to fly formation if you cannot see the others that were supposed to be in the formation. Each bomber had their own timings, altitude way points etc. which kept the bomber stream tight .
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