Ok honestly the bombers up to rank IV/V are a pain, if you are lucky you can bomb the base, however, all this depends little on the pilot’s skill, because if 2/3 fighters arrive and you are playing with higher ranks (so armed most of the time with 20mm cannons) it’s over, you don’t have time to take aim and your bomber is falling, the ratio of useful matches with the bomber is 1 out of 5 being optimistic.The bomber is an easy target I know, slow and big, perfect to be hit but here is where I would like to propose a change. During WW2 (the golden age of strategic bombers) the strength of the bomber does not come from itself, but from the wing, a wing of 10/20 B-17 was untouchable or at least could resist the raids of the fighters, I would propose to create a new mode for the bombers, a mode composed of two teams, one in which there are bombers defended by some fighters and the other composed exclusively of fighters and interceptors, the objective? For the first to manage to bomb a point, for the second to prevent it. It could be a good way to enjoy these units that at the moment are only suffering, moreover left in oblivion for years (The cockpit seems to come straight out of War Thunder 2014 and in some bombers the bomb release is bugged, like with the B-24D)
Another day another thread about this
Problems need to be solved, not left to fester. If something isn’t changed, people will continue to talk about it forever.
Two myths:
- Strategic bombing:
- Every serious study about aerial bombing campaigns showed that large allied bomber fleets were just good for one purpose: Targeting population centers and killing civilians.
- That’s also the reason why Germany and Japan recovered that fast after WW 2: Bombing raids killed mainly transportation infrastructure and workers.
- Depending on which study you want to cite you find out that within Germany between 75-85% of their production capacity was intact after VE day. The US statistics about raids on Japan analyzed mainly the destruction ratio of population centers.
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Combat boxes and Combat wings:
The numbers of aircraft varied (up to 54) but even in Spring/Summer 1944 the LW managed to wipe out multiple combat boxes (3 squadrons of 6 ships) almost entirely as soon as they found a gap in the escort fighter screen.
There is no defense vs determined pilots in armored fighters. Look up The Sturmböcke
I disgree - Imho it depends mainly on pilot skill based on experience.
As a basic rule: Without being a decent fighter pilot it is almost impossible to make any bomber above BR 2.7 work. And without experience it is incredible hard to get near to a base at BR 4.3 or higher.
As your topic is redundant (use forum search) a reply to another proposal regarding bombers:
From my pov you have way too less experience to make multi-engine bombers work.
Use your Ki-100 II to research the TT B7A2 and gain some experience, the plane kills every base (even in full uptiers) just with 9 x 60 kg bombs and is good enough to avoid contact with enemies if you don’t feel confident enough to kill enemy interceptors. Being (almost) untouchable might give you a chance to watch others with more success in bombers what they are doing.
Have a good one!
Agreed, but it bothers a lot of guys.
Have a good one!
Interesting. Never knew about that 🤔
You got any more info on that? Like on fighter vs. 4-engined bomber.
I would think that it takes the effort of multiple fighters to take on a bomber.
Would actually be interesting to know how likely a fighter could down a bomber and vice versa.
I once read some kill report of a Sturmbock Pilot who downed a B-24 with his Fw 190.
I think he opened fire from 800m and disengaged at 50m. Spending 360 rounds of 20mm ammo and around 700 13mm.
No mention of the Bomber actually returning fire, iirc.
The B-24 caught on fire and went into a dive, exploded and crashed into the ground.
But that B-24 was also alone, don’t recall how it ended up being a target.
You find certain things often by looking at looking at other things.
Years (ok decades) ago i was always wondering about certain economic developments after WW 2 - so i read a lot about European, UK, JP and German economy after WW 2.
You find even in the web various studies regarding the production capacity after VE day. As transportation nods (mainly railway) were located in city centers it is logical that infrastructure was almost entirely destroyed.
I don’t remember the source and exact location, but i also read that an earthquake in JP had a larger impact on the production of arms (fighters?) than previous and subsequent bombing raids on a large plant.
In the last 15 years newer research about actual impacts of area bombings conclude that allied bomber crews were just send into certain death in a war of attrition without having the necessary precision to hit actually relevant targets.
Technically seen there was no need for that as JP and Germany ran out of oil. So attacking production plants if the enemy has no fuel to operate tanks or aircraft in an offensive role makes no real sense.
I read years ago this:
And a lot of other books from Osprey publishing.
Usually good quality.
Iirc the LW changed multiple times their tactical approaches. Some of them were aimed to wipe out whole squadrons / groups.
The Sturmgruppen tactics had clear target allocations like 1 fighter vs 1 bomber. Have in mind that they used the 190 A-8/R 2 with MK 108s with and without additional armor…
Well, with that heavy armament it’s very likely for the fighter to shoot down the bomber.
I guess a Hispano will also outrange a bombers defensive armament so the odds should be in a fighters favor.
Just wondering about certain Luftwaffe developments.
Like the 5cm BK to not even get into a bombers defensive range.
Or the 21cm Rockets. But I guess the logic behind that was to keep the fighter safe, since the LW was running low on aircraft and pilots.
Otherwise you could probably trade a fighter for a bomber shot down.
Which would be a good deal under normal circumstances.
Just how trading a gunners life is apparently a good deal for the chance of taking down a fighter and potentially an experienced pilot 🙃