Mitsubishi Stuka and Thunderbolt

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by RPS69

Germans admited that gunners were there to improve the moral of the crew, not for achieving any brilliant results. They were there to bring the idea that they were not just flying pigeons.

I think that was the case for a lot of gunners who also had other jobs, like the flight engineer, navigator and bombardier on the U.S. heavy bombers. Being able to shoot back rather than just sit there and take it was probably a morale boost.

Additionally, all those gunners served as extra eyes, not just to look out for fighters or flak, but also for station-keeping in formation.

Originally Posted by RPS69

The difference with B17's were the closed box formation.

Actually, all the U.S. heavy bombers.

Originally Posted by RPS69

For the fighter groups, it was like attacking a ground position with heavy AA fire, without armored aircraft.

Even so, the U.S. practice of heavily armed bombers flying in close formation didn't work so well unless they had fighter escort. U.S. attempts at unescorted missions deep into Europe were disastrous and forced a temporary halt to U.S. bombing raids while the generals figured out a different strategy.

The British learned this lesson earlier and told the Americans, but the Americans wouldn't listen. Without extremely long-ranged fighters like the P-47, P-51 and P-38 to escort their bombers, the British had to revert to night bombing.

Originally Posted by RPS69

The way they found to combat this situation, was to break the box formation to pick less risky targets.

Yep. Of course, German squadron tactics in the game don't follow Luftwaffe doctrine at all. There's no attempt whatsoever to "break the box" and then detail a flight or section to deal with the cripples.

Likewise, U.S. heavies don't try to maintain formation (like several cripples banding together to form a slower formation), nor do U.S. fighters attempt to protect cripples as opposed to the rest of the formation.