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area bombing in MosquitoParsifal, would area bombing of cities been the best use of Mosquitos? Considering that they could potentially hit targets more accurately bombing from low level and/or during the day?
Parsifal, would area bombing of cities been the best use of Mosquitos? Considering that they could potentially hit targets more accurately bombing from low level and/or during the day?
Why do you think so?
I suspect a Lancaster level bomber @ 3,000 feet was just as accurate as a Mosquito level bomber @ 3,000 feet.
Lancasters carried out precision raids with weapons that a Mosquito simply couldn't carry.
Someone will have to explain to me why the Mosquito would be inherently a more accurate weapon than the Lancaster which could carry a much larger load.
Cheers
Steve
I suspect that 1960s bomb sights could compensate for high speed a lot better then WWII era bomb sights.
Perhaps we should start by determining what bomb sight was used by each aircraft type.
Although existing sources do not record when the Mk. XIV went into production in the UK, they do record that operational testing started in January 1942 and production examples started reaching squadrons in March. Its manufacture was done by small machine shops and instrument makers, and production was simply too slow to meet the demand. Between July and October, less than one hundred a month were being delivered. As the design was finalized, automated production was undertaken, and by mid-1943 900 a month were available. This was enough to equip the heavy bombers as they arrived from the production lines, and by late 1942 the Handley Page Halifax was being delivered with the sight head already installed.
To fill demand for other aircraft, and especially smaller ones like the de Havilland Mosquito, the Air Ministry started looking at US manufacturers to supply the bombsight. Frederic Blin Vose of Sperry Gyroscope expressed an interest in the design, and felt he could adapt the Mk. XIV to US production methods and have it in mass production rapidly.
SABS was used operationally for the first time by No. 617 "Dambusters" Squadron on the night of 11/12 November 1943 for their attack on railway viaduct at Anthéor. No hits on the viaduct were recorded during this raid by any of the 10 Avro Lancasters dropping 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) Blockbuster bombs.[1]
617 Squadron achieved an accuracy of 94 yd (86 m) at the V Weapon launch site at Abbeville on 16/17 December 1943.
It appears to me this hand made bomb sight was preferred for precision work. The RAF installed it in Lancaster Bombers, not Mosquitos. That says a lot about the inherit accuracy of the Lancaster Bomber vs the Mosquito.
86 meters is outstanding accuracy for a level bomber. Almost as good as the Ju-88A dive bomber which could place 50% of bombs within 50 meters of the aiming point.
Perhaps the RAF didn't need more Mosquito light bombers. What they needed were more accurate bomb sights for existing Lancaster Bombers plus a long range fighter aircraft to protect the bombers.