The B-24’s were notorious gas leakers. But they carried a heck of a bomb load. Conversely, by today’s standards, most people would be shocked just how little ordinance was carried by a B-17. But when you have thousands of them in one raid and they are being manufactured faster than the enemy can shoot them down, there is a certain quality that counts.
I have a WWII film of B-24’s on a mission where they are flying so close to the ground that it appears that one of the planes is literally coming within less than 10 feet of the ground - filmed from one of the other planes in the formation. I believe it was the first failed mission to Poesti.
On a side note, I was at a moving sale today of an elderly couple and as I talked to them, I discovered the guy flew as engineer on a Mosquito out of Italy during WWII. They had 50 cal guns (apparently no cannon) and their mission was night fighter. His plane was shot down once and he was credited with saving his pilot’s life when he pulled him from the wreckage.
Mosquito NFs had the 4 30cal machine guns in the nose replaced by radar. Their armament was 4 20mm cannon in the lower fuselage.
“people would be shocked just how little ordinance was carried by a B-17. But when you have thousands of them in one raid “
My 90 year old dad was a 2nd Lt in the 7th Army in WWII. When they were in France he saw thousands of bombers flying overhead, on their way to Germany I suppose. An impressive sight, he tells me.
He was with the corps anti aircraft artillery. They had radar to acquire targets and electric drives on their 90 mm guns to track them. A couple of times they spotted a German plane bearing in but the electric drive couldn’t keep up with it. Their first introduction to the world of jets.