3/11/2023 0 Comments Ww2 bomber crew survival rates![]() So, the B-29 was primarily used in the Pacific theater during World War II but how would it have fared in the air war over Germany if it had become available in 1943? During the last two months of 1944, B-29s began operating against Japan from the islands of Saipan, Guam and Tinian. Army Air Forces leadership committed the Superfortress to Asia, where its great range made it particularly suited for the long over-water flights against the Japanese homeland from bases in China. Flying ahead of the main bomber stream with their speed and accuracy they were ideal at marking targets for those that followed.The B-29 was primarily used in the Pacific theater during World War II but how would it have fared in the air war over Germany if it had become available in 1943?ĭesigned in 1940 as an eventual replacement for the B-17 and B-24, the first B-29 made its maiden flight on Sept. Perhaps it was actually best employed in the role it was so often used, as part of the RAF Pathfinder Force. The average for the Mosquito was just under 40 tons! ![]() The average tonnage of bombs required to destroy one of these sites by B-17 Flying Fortresses was 165 for B26 Marauders it was 182 tons and for B25 Mitchells 219 tons. But what about accuracy?Īn example of the tremendous accuracy achieved by Mosquitos can be shown by comparing figures for the attacks on the V-weapons sites. On the face of it that justifies the use of the heavy bomber by utilising fewer aircrew. One thousand Lancaster’s would have a crew of 7,000 men, five thousand, five hundred Mosquitos would need 11,000 men! It would take five thousand, five hundred Mosquito’s to deliver that amount. So if we take theoretical “thousand bomber raid” of Lancaster bombers, they could deliver a staggering 9,821 tons of explosives. I wondered how the Mosquito and Lancaster compared? “The British, who can afford aluminium better than we can, knock together a beautiful wooden aircraft that every piano factory over there is building”. Hermann Göring Wikipedia With a shortage of men, women could be brought in to fill the gaps in the factories. But it needed skilled wood workers, where as with other aluminium airframe planes it was much easier to train workers to do the job. This made it very difficult to interrupt production. On one hand parts could be made in workshops the length and breadth of the Empire. It was an all wood construction, though this worked for and against it when it came to production. Not only would this reduce the crew size but save enough weight and increase the Lancaster’s speed by around 50 mph.Īll of which, in a round about way, made me think why did they not just build more mosquitos? It was fast, it had a decent bomb load (especially when comparing it to the American B-17) and only had a crew of two. To achieve this he suggested removing the two defensive gun positions. If losses were to be accepted the fewer airmen on the plane the better. He suggested the very small escape hatch on the Lancaster might partly be to blame. ![]() He noted crews were less likely to survive bailing out in a Lancaster (15% chance) than a B-17 (50% chance) or the Halifax (25% chance). The War Office statistician, Freeman Dyson investigated the high losses on Lancaster’s Lancaster: The Biography by Tony Iveson. From November 1943 to March 1944 Berlin was repeatedly bombed, the loss rate of the heavy bombers (predominantly Lancaster’s) was 5.1%, for the Mosquito it was 0.5%. Whereas the B-17 payload would allow for a much wider variation, so was more flexible.Īnother thing about the Mosquito is the survival rate of the planes and crew, an argument of speed over defence. But the devil is in the detail, the Mosquito had to deliver its payload as either one bomb of 4,000lbs or as four 500lbs bombs. The B-17 would carry 3,500b of bombs to Berlin and the Mosquito 4,000lbs. In the last WW2 Podcast I discovered the British de Havilland Mosquito could deliver a similar payload to Berlin, as the American B-17. I was surprised.
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