Anyone seen a blenhiem bombing guide

[Vengeanze]

I'd love to bomb stuff but the Blenheim is a too easy target to take online in campaigns. Can't make myself learn how to bomb with it cause my guess is I'd never make it close to the dropzone.
Wish we had a heavy bomber with some more gunpods.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Redroach

so you answer him about the bombsight, but not me, huh? pfffft!

I've gotten good results (within the blen's possibilities) when following the other guy's advice in the thread I mentioned when coming in at 6000ft and lowering the speed adjustment to 100-110mph when actually going 180-190mph. As I said, it's all in the other thread.

Hahaha, sorry mate, it's just that there are so many threads and so little time to answer them all. I sometimes make a mental note to try out something to be able to answer another user, then i forget about it if i start reading something else

Originally Posted by Vengeanze

I'd love to bomb stuff but the Blenheim is a too easy target to take online in campaigns. Can't make myself learn how to bomb with it cause my guess is I'd never make it close to the dropzone.
Wish we had a heavy bomber with some more gunpods.

I think the trick is to come in low and fast, having an escort is always welcome too as for all bombers.

It might be under-protected but it can move at a reasonable clip, also thanks to the way the graphics are (camo paint actually works) it might be hard for patrolling enemy fighters to pick you up against the ground until it's too late.

Cruising speeds as low as 130mph were used for maximum range and fuel economy, but i think such mission profiles would be used in long range missions (like the raid on the Cologne power stations). For the short ranges we have on the current map, loading up just 50% fuel (to lessen the weight and help with the take-off) and cruising at 180mph (+0 to +1.5 boost at full coarse prop pitch) is good enough for coastal targets.

[Phazon]

I might be wrong but the Blenheim bombsight might be bugged in that its not "aligned" properly, which might explain why its so hard to get bombs on-target even when the bombsight is dialled in. One of the devs mentioned it on the sukhoi.ru forum.

[JG53Frankyboy]

as long it is not mentioned in a Patch readme "overworked Blenheim CEM and bombhandling" i fly it as a low level bomber - mostly flying one or two antiship skipbombing attacks on ATAG server before i leave.

Btw, i have removed the tracer rounds from my reargunner.... some kind of surprise for attacking interceptors

[Redroach]

yes, the blen's bombsight IS bugged, even visually.
Still, when having no fighter escort, I found it best to not fly directly towards the target, but in a wide (very wide, all over northern france) arc towards it, in order to avoid being spotted and engaged.
A little self-defense is fine, at least as a deterrent, but more 'gunpods' rarely help on bombers.

[HR_Naglfar]

The bombsight is bugged, but is more or less usable.

Put your altitude above ground x 3 instead of the real altitude. For example if you are 5000ft above the target, put 15000ft in the bombsight.

The bombs fall sometimes in a weird manner though, so it's not very accurate.

[Blackdog_kt]

Interesting, so you say it's just a scale error? If that's the case then we can apply a single correction (like you described) and finally have a usable bombisight.

Nice, i'll try this out today

[Mechanist]

Here are my exact findings thats mentioned before:

Blenheim mk IV bombsight problem:

If you fly for example at 6000 ft with 190 mph TAS level flight and you give this parameters to the bombsight, it points approx 3 miles closer then the actual impact point.

So i adjusted the input settings to find the correct impact point and here are the results:

Scenario 1: Adjusting the airspeed with correct altitude to find the correct inpact point:

Fligth conditions 3000 ft 190 mph TAS:
Set height to 3000 ft set speed to 90 mph

Fligth conditions 6000 ft 190 mph TAS:
Set height to 6000 ft set speed to 110 mph


Scenario 2: Adjusting the altitude with correct airspeed to find the correct inpact point::

Fligth conditions 3000 ft 190 mph TAS:
Set speed to 190 mhp TAS the height input is 12000 ft

Fligth conditions 6000 ft 190 mph TAS:
Set speed to 190 mhp TAS the height input is 16000 ft

Also when you set the airspeed you'll see the speed setter wheel turning in the right lower part of the bombing sight. It have a scale from 100-260
I belive it's in mph, but it turns uncorrectly. Althougt the bar/lath in the left upper section of the sight have a scale between 90-310 mph.

The wheel turns like this:

set with keys / Indicated in the wheel:
90 / 258
100 / 120
110 / 155
120 / 190
130 / 225
140 / 258

And so on in the same pattern, so you can turn it arrond 3 times. I belive it is pretty wierd...

Also some information about effective bombing:

As for bombing procedures, my observations are the following:

- As mentioned before the bombsight don't work properly, so we have to wait for a fix.

- On the other hand if it were operational it will be very tricky to get a decent hit with just 2 or 4 bombs at higher altitudes.
I have run some tests on bombs dispersion from 3000 and 6000 feet, and they can impact anywhere between 30 to 300 feet (4 bombs).
Basicly the bombsight can only be used to hit a factory site, railway station, port, or an airfield, but it won't be effective if only one blenheim carries out this kind of mission. 9 or 12 would do in vic or diamond formation.

- For three or less blenheims (which occurs mostly in online games) the only way to be effective is to use an attack dive bombing in low altitudes. With this way a flight of blenheims can easily take out columns, trains, parking airplanes, bridges, railway stations, ships, encampments, etc.
Unluckily performing a percise attack dive takes a lot of practise, because there is no instrumental aid for such attack procedure in the blenheims cockpit.
I say you must drop about 1000 bombs to get the hang of it, also if you get the "feeling" when to release the bombs you will able to do it in any other plane aswell. Most of us have this "bombing sence" from il-2 allready and it works fine in CloD too
But here are some advice for the beginers:
- Always line up on your target if it moves or just longer in one direction, like a train, a ship, or a bride.
- Moving targets are best approached from behind, because you decrease the difference of speed between you and your target (easier to hit slower or stationary targets then fast moving ones because you have to calculate an impact point witch is before the target)
- The higher angle you have the closer the bomb will impact to your crosshair\sight. That is the whole point of Stuka like dive bombing, but it requires dive brakes which blenheims doesn't have.
- The lower you release the bomb the preciser your bomb will impact. Just remember that most bombs have to travel certain time in the air before its armed, and you can damage or kill your self with your own bomb. You can use timed detonators, but I won't reccomend them against moving targets. Although 1 or 2 secs might be fine against slow moving lightly armored targets.
- If you have few bombs against a linear-like target wait few milliseconds between releasing them, because you will do more damage against a column or a train, also you improve your direct hit chance on a ship or a bride.
- Choose your loadout wisely if you know the exact target you going to destroy. For example two 500 pounders are great for destroying larger buildings, bridges, or ships, but will do less damage against a 20 car long column, then four 250 pounders. Be aware that the blast damage decreases with the square of distance, so if you are going against a linear-like target choose more lighter bombs the few heavier. In the other hand four 250 pounders will do minimum damage against a concrete bunker or a heavily armoured ship because it doesn't have enough penatrating power, so in that case us heavier or penetrator bombs. Germans have SD bombs which don't blast much but will penetrate armoured or thick targets.

Thats all I can recall, for now...