Although no German fighters resisted at the beginning of the US Air Force bombing campaign, it was no easy task for the Luftwaffe to shoot down a large B-17 or B-24 bomber.
A Luftwaffe report noted that attacking a heavy bomber of the US Air Force from the rear would require about 20 20-mm shells (much more lethal than the bomber's own machine guns). At the same time, Luftwaffe pilots hit only about 2% of shells on average about 2% of a bomber; This means that 1000 rounds of 20-mm shells were needed to ensure the destruction of the bomber. One Luftwaffe FW 190 fighter could carry only 500 shells.
One Luftwaffe FW 190 was loaded with a 21-centimeter Werfergranaten (WFG) for attacking heavy bomber rockets.
It is noteworthy that, in addition to adding more defensive guns, the bomber received more and improved armor, which made the task of the Luftwaffe much more difficult.
A frontal attack on a bomber gave the Luftwaffe pilots a greater opportunity, as the bomber's front-firing defense** was more limited and the armor was less effective. According to Luftwaffe research, the destruction of a bomber from the front could be achieved with the hit of 4-5 20-mm shells. However, the program also addressed this issue in order to raise the "heavy" armament of the US Air Force, including the chin turret of the B-17.
On January 11, 1944, in Oschersleben, Germany, a Focke-Wolf FW 190 shot down a B-17G from the U.S. Army Air Corps during an attack on the Ago Flugzeugwerke aircraft factory.
Once again, as the bombers of the US Air Force increased their firepower, the Luftwaffe increased their firepower accordingly, adding more ammunition, larger caliber artillery, and later even air-to-air rockets. These moves may be largely due to the need for heavy bombers, which are more likely to destroy a heavy bomber in a single traverse, but they are also increasingly outperforming the bomber's defensive guns. Fortunately for the 8th Air Force, the 21-centimeter rocket, despite its large warhead, was less reliable.
In action, 21 cm Werfergranaten (WFG. The rocket turned out to be relatively ineffective. Aviation historian Alfred Price recalls that "it shot down very few bombers, but it often caused enough damage to the planes to force them out of formation and let other fighters take them out." ”
In October 1943, the 8th Air Force raided the ball bearing production center in Schweinfurt, southern Germany, to show the U.S. Army Air Corps leadership that if the bombers were to survive, they needed to take a different approach.
On August 17, 1943, the American Air Corps' B-17F conducted a raid on the ball bearing production center over Schweinfurt, Germany.
At this stage, U.S. Air Force bombers could use fighter escorts, however, the Schweinfurt attack on October 14, 1943, showed that these protective assets were too small in number and too short in range to ensure adequate protection.
During the second air raid on Schweinfurt, 291 B-17s were sent to the target, of which 60 were completely lost, 17 were damaged beyond repair, and another 121 received varying degrees of damage. Alarmingly, 22 per cent of those involved in the bombing — about 650 out of 2,900 — died.
On October 14, 1943, a B-17 of the Eighth Air Force returned from a raid on Schweinfurt, Germany, an operation that came to be known as "Black Thursday".
In response, the U.S. Air Force suspended unescorted day bomber raids deep into Germany until February 1944. When they start again, the P-51B long-range escort fighter can provide the bombers with the close-range defensive protection they desperately need. The P-51, flying in front of the combat box, was to finally seize control of the sky from the fighter units of the Luftwaffe. At this point, the tide of war turned more generally against Germany, depriving Germany of the resources it needed to try to weaken the Allied bomber offensive.
Between February and June 1944, the combination of these factors finally made the B-17 a survivable asset. After the successful "Great Zhou" air raid in early 1944, Berlin is now in the sights of the US Air Force. The first air raid of the 8th Air Force on the capital of the Third Reich took place in March.
Tika IV, a P-51D piloted by Lieutenant Vernon Richards, served with the 361st Fighter Squadron of the 374th Fighter Group.
From now on, the Luftwaffe's response was only symbolic. The jet-powered ME 262, armed with heavy artillery and rockets, was a formidable bomber destroyer, but there were too few of them to make sense, and its actions were hampered by pilots and fuel shortages. On the other hand, the rocket-powered ME 163 offered amazing performance that allowed it to pass through the bomber stream unscathed, but for the pilots, arguably more lethal than the Eighth Air Force.
Until the Eighth Air Force finally gained the upper hand over Europe, survival depended largely on the bravery and skill of the bomber crews themselves. Although they were helped by the B-17, in particular, absorbing a considerable amount of combat damage, their machine gun armament was more than just a morale booster.
1944 "Hitler wanted the man to go home and forget about the war. Next to the side machine gun of a huge B-17 bomber, a good unappointed American is a man who knows his business and works hard" - this is the original title of a wartime propaganda ** showing the B-17 waist gunner.
The defense of the bomber ** and tactics aimed at making the most of it forced the Luftwaffe to change its approach. The gunners also succeeded, with the Eighth Air Force claiming to have destroyed 6259 enemy aircraft by bomber gunners, more than fighter pilots. However, there is no doubt that in the heat of battle, the "killing" of fighters is tricky. Often, multiple gunmen will be directed at the same target**, and the observation of the confirmed wreckage is far from guaranteed, and there is no footage from the gun's camera. The limited recognition of the gunner's aces reflects these realities, but at the same time, their enlistment status (to a large extent) means that they are also often left out of the official list of the US Air Force.
On April 13, 1945, less than a month before Germany's surrender on May 8, B-17 bombers from the 398th Bombardment Group flew to Neumünster, Germany, to bomb.
In any case, their work is crucial, and their tasks are the most dangerous.
Bruce D. Callander wrote in the April 1, 1991, issue of Aerospace Magazine: "When a gunman is not shooting or not being shot, his primary concern is survival. ”
The mission lasted up to 8 hours, and most of the flights took place in 2Conducted at 50,000 feet or more. The temperature inside the bomber was as low as minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit because the bomber had no insulation and there was very little heating outside the flight deck. A fleece-lined flight jacket has little protection. The earliest electrically heated garments often short-circuited and burned their wearers. The waist gunner worked in the open window, his fingers would freeze, slipping on the waste bullets piling up under his feet. The turret gunners were slightly more protected, but their pods gave them little room to move their sore arms or stomp their feet. ”
In hindsight, it became clear that a sufficient number of high-quality long-range escort fighters was a decisive factor in reducing the losses of bombers of the Eighth Air Force to a more acceptable level. But before these fighters were put into service, the bomber crews often provided the first and last line of defense for the aircraft themselves.
Around 1944, Lieutenant George H. Heilig waved "yes" from the cockpit of "General Ike." "General Ike" is a B-17 bomber belonging to the 401st Bombardment Squadron of the 91st Bombardment Group of the British Eighth Air Force.
Interestingly, there is at least one school of thought in Britain that it would have been better for the Royal Air Force to remove all the defensive machine guns from World War II bombers.
In 1943, theoretical physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson suggested removing at least some of the turrets on the Lancaster bomber to provide what he claimed to be an increase in cruising speed of 50 miles per hour. The unarmed Mosquito relied on its speed to protect itself from Luftwaffe fighters, but in general it was a higher performance aircraft, and it seemed unlikely that an unarmed Lancaster would have had greater survivability.
August 1943: U.S. Army Air Corps bomber crews and their B-17s. Visible are the left waist machine gun, as well as a spherical turret and a gun protruding from the upper part of the fuselage.
This brings us to the morale factor and a very important fact that the crews of heavy bombers of the US Army Air Corps and the Royal Air Force are able to counterattack with defensive **, even if their guns are still inferior in terms of destructive power.
While the exact number of gunners of the Eighth Air Force can never be determined, their legacy was carried over in the post-war US Air Force, which continued to equip its strategic bombers with artillery, eventually remaining only in the tail until the B-52H. The B-52H is still in service today, although its tail gun has been removed. The B-52 and other strategic bombers were commanded by the Eighth Air Force, which was precisely the machine gunners who fought valiantly for the liberation of Europe in the Second World War.