On a different note I am stunned by the inability too ever bounce (well 5% maybe) spitfires

I've been stunned by the general uselessness of the Spitfires. Very inert escorts, and seemingly reverting to passive victims of endless LW bounces on the return-to-base legs of missions. This has varied ...

Thanks very much, I appreciate the tips. Gonna play through a few days and see if staggering the escorts a bit more makes a notable difference, and report back once I have enough data to form a notable conclusion.

I'm fairly new to the game, and I'm having some trouble when it comes to escorting my bomber raids. Sometimes it goes well and they do their jobs, and my fighters shoot down all sorts of enemy interceptors. Sometimes though, it goes very poorly, and my bomber formations will be torn to shreds ...