Did the British actually shoot down bombers/planes over London?

[Gribbers]

Originally Posted by 322Sqn_Dusty

Yes, that was Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

That's her....I heard about it years ago but couldn't remember and couldn't find any info

[katdogfizzow]

Originally Posted by the Dutchman

With the risk of them crashing into buildings and making more victims?
Or did they wait for the enemy after or before reaching London(and any other big cities for that matter)?

Wait for the enemy to drop 500-1000 pound bombs all over your city?! Are you INSANE? ...When the enemy is dropping 500 pound bombs on your city, you shoot to kill because the entire area is a war zone.

Here is the potential blast radius of the SC500 bomb.

http://howbigreally.com/dimension/wo...500_bomb_blast

Here are the effects of bombs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Wse...eature=related

[SEE]

Originally Posted by the Dutchman

With the risk of them crashing into buildings and making more victims?
Or did they wait for the enemy after or before reaching London(and any other big cities for that matter)?

The RAF initially wanted to intercept before they reached their targets but Luftwaffe formations were high in numbers. However, Dowding seems to have consdered the lack of fuel problem for the escorting fighters and this was even more of a problem with them protecting the bombers over London itself.

I suspect the RAF used tactical advantage rather consideration of civilian casualties and that the Bombers (due to their large formations) would get through anyway.

[TomcatViP]

Originally Posted by SEE

The RAF initially wanted to intercept before they reached their targets but Luftwaffe formations were high in numbers. However, Dowding seems to have consdered the lack of fuel problem for the escorting fighters and this was even more of a problem with them protecting the bombers over London itself.

I suspect the RAF used tactical advantage rather consideration of civilian casualties and that the Bombers (due to their large formations) would get through anyway.

They are intercepted over their target simply because it's their converging point and as such any intercept attempt have a greater chance to end successfully around that point (ingress or egress wise)

It's no difference btw a military airfield, ammunition depot or a city.

By the way bombs kills more than crashing planes.