Stuka squadron question

[stona]

Before Miss Shilling's handy carburretor fix a Merlin powered pilot could roll inverted into a dive and later roll back hoping his target was ahead of him. Bader describes this manouevre, like the first part of a split S then rolling back to continue in the same direction. He also said that Bf 109 pilots tended to pull out of a dive slowly, "a bit porky on the joystick" is what he actually said. He attributed this to a test pilot pulling the wings off a 109 trying to recover too rapidly from a dive. I've no idea if that is true or not but Bader thought so. In any case the German pilots were wary of pulling too many G.
Steve

 

[BombTaxi]

Like I say, there was little effective AA defence against dive -bombers in the WWII era, simply because AAA during the period was largely incapable of tracking and targeting diving aircraft accurately and rapidly enough to give a good chance of a hit. Even with timed fuses, calculating the deflection to ensure both the shell and the Stuka were in the same place when the fuse expired was almost impossible with the electro-mechanical targeting equipment which was state of the art at the time. The biggest single problem was that by the time a solution had been calculated and transmitted to the guns, and the guns laid and fired, the Stuka would have moved so far as to render the solution useless. You would need something like a modern naval CIWS or even better, a guided missile to hit a diving aircraft, and even then it was difficult. The only defence was for fighters to shoot the bombers down before they got to the target. Even ground-based MGs would have been of little use - the human eye and brain simply lack the agility to track and hit a target moving straight down at high speed...

 

[Condora]

Even with such lack of accuracy, AAA was not merely to raise the morale of the defenders.

When someone is attacking a target, and is aware that people are throwing averything AND their kitchen sink at him, tends to get a bit more prone to fail.

I'm not sure if it was the Falklands war, but there was an incident like that, with jet pilots complaining about enemy fire, and their superior officer reminding them that the pilots from previous wars had a lot more risk (less speed, watching them coming in, hopefully pass by... ), and did their job.

 

[stona]

My mother told me that on one occasion a flight of "raiders" flew over Oxfored causing the AAA which was positioned in the parks to let loose. The enemy aircraft continued on their way but concussions from the guns and shell fragments falling to earth damaged many peoples windows and roofs resulting in a lot of complaints. The good people of Oxford reckoned that the AAA did more damage than any enemy aircraft. Unlike many of our cities Oxford was never seriously bombed and this may have coloured their opinion.
Steve

 

[Condora]

My mother told me that on one occasion a flight of "raiders" flew over Oxfored causing the AAA which was positioned in the parks to let loose. The enemy aircraft continued on their way but concussions from the guns and shell fragments falling to earth damaged many peoples windows and roofs resulting in a lot of complaints. The good people of Oxford reckoned that the AAA did more damage than any enemy aircraft. Unlike many of our cities Oxford was never seriously bombed and this may have coloured their opinion.
Steve

I guess so, otherwise they would have had their windows ready for it - I don't know if it is entirely effective, but when the war started and Germany invaded most of Europe, even neutral countries such as Portugal started putting straps glued accross their window panes, and keeping them opened when possible.

 

[BombTaxi]

My mother told me that on one occasion a flight of "raiders" flew over Oxfored causing the AAA which was positioned in the parks to let loose. The enemy aircraft continued on their way but concussions from the guns and shell fragments falling to earth damaged many peoples windows and roofs resulting in a lot of complaints. The good people of Oxford reckoned that the AAA did more damage than any enemy aircraft. Unlike many of our cities Oxford was never seriously bombed and this may have coloured their opinion.
Steve

'First Blitz' by Neil Hanson deals quite extensively with the damage AAA batteries did to the city of London during the 1917-18 German bombing raids - many were killed and injured and much damage done to to property by falling fragments.

It is true that AAA could disrupt or break up attacks, but the likelihood of this happening decreases substantially as the training and experience of the intended victims increases. In 1939-41, the Stuka crews were undoubtedly an elite, and they pressed their attacks hard. In the Med, RN vessels escorting convoys to Malta put up huge AAA barrages but did not stop Ju88s from pressing home dive bombing attacks. And the dive bomber squadrons on both sides at Midway pressed through heavy AAA to deliver powerful attacks. So flak can have an effect, but amongst well-trained crews, the effect was significantly reduced, IMHO.

 

[stona]

I guess so, otherwise they would have had their windows ready for it - I don't know if it is entirely effective, but when the war started and Germany invaded most of Europe, even neutral countries such as Portugal started putting straps glued accross their window panes, and keeping them opened when possible.

I don't know whether they had taped their windows or not. Here in England you wouldn't have your windows open that often. It's July now and I've had to shut the big window in my office because I'm freezing my nuts off! lol They are playing test cricket about two miles away and most of the players are wearing sweaters.
Steve

 

[Condora]

I don't know whether they had taped their windows or not. Here in England you wouldn't have your windows open that often. It's July now and I've had to shut the big window in my office because I'm freezing my nuts off! lol They are playing test cricket about two miles away and most of the players are wearing sweaters.
Steve

Grumble! I had to go to England and get the - probably - only wackos who'd want to sleep with windows opened... in December!