Sorry, but that sounds like something Kathryn Janeway would say.
David Simmons is to Chacotay as Conan the Barbarian is to Raggedy Andy.
Not exactly. While it was true for the B-17 Es and Fs , the chin turret of the B-17 G alleviated a lot of the problem.
You might want to explain why you can speak of such things with some measure of expertise. I remember but others may not.
As a matter of fact, I am the worlds foremost expert on my experience, at least what I remember of it. However, that experience was quite limited in extent and lots of people have studied the war a lot more intensely than I have.
Don’t sell yourself short. For one thing I’m pretty sure that no ones else has anything close to your experience on the subject, despite what they have read in a book.
You should clarify, noone else among the people known to be posting here. I’m sure there are a number of his cohort beside him still kicking around,and long may they.
And for the confused bystander: Simmons flew medium bombers over the ETO back in the day, and later IIRC went on to a career that included aerospace/military tech. Though the gentleman is of such character he would be the first to tell us, and just did, that his experience makes him an authority on his experience, not necessarily on everything related to the issue.
Certainly in 1940/41 the Germans had no effective night fighter but in 1942 - as the strength of RAF Bomber Command increased and the night attacks gained in strength - they introduced the Lichtenstein AI radar on converted Ju88s (and other aircraft) which worked well enough even without the cavity magnetron. Lichtenstein worked at a wavelength of about 1.5 metres (as opposed to the tens of centimetres of British AI radar) and so required large external aerials which hit the performance of the fighter but it, and its successors, did the job.
The airborne radar was only one part of a complete air defense system - ground radar, ground control stations, anti-aircraft guns, equipment for tracking radio emmissions from the bombers, etc. etc. which the Germans developed as the war went on. I take my hat off to anyone who flew into this system - night or day, British, American, Canadian, Australian, Polish … I don’t have figures for the USAAF but Bomber Command loss rates averaged out at around 5% during the strategic campaign against Germany. Over 10000 aircraft were lost (obviously not all over Germany or to fighters) and 6 out of 10 of the aircrew were killed - over 55000 dead.
Well, my knowledge of German airborne radar has been updated. However, having read several descriptions I think these radars had some serious drawbacks as air interceptors.
The antennas couldn’t be moved and so there was no effective search ability. If the plane lost the target it had to be redirected by ground control. The antenna arrays adversely affected the aircraft performance and were susceptible to damage.
However they did provide the Germans with some night fighter capability.
Oh sure, WWII casualties for all air forces were high. German anti aircraft artillery directed by ground radar was quite effective. The subject, though, was why did British aerial gunners seldom fire their guns. I believe it was because German night fighters were not particularly effective and, of course, the gunners couldn’t see much either.
Wouldn’t it also have given away the position of the tail of a bomber at night pretty effectively too?