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Night Bombing Question
Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 5:12 pm
by Misconduct
Switching from Avalanche to Overlord - I have a good routine for the day light bombing, however I have absolutely no luck with night time bombing, my question is which planes work best (I notice some have navigation radar) and alt would serve best. So far in a dozen raids I have yet to score more then 10% hit with over 100 bombers per raid.
Oh and the targets have been railroads mostly. Is it possible to switch the British bomber fleet to day light hours?
RE: Night Bombing Question
Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:34 am
by harley
If you hit railyards you are more likely to do terror damage to the surrounding area. It is possible to do pinpoint raids on factories, but unless you recon the following day, you'll never know how you did.
No, Bomber Command cannot be switched to daylight raids.
RE: Night Bombing Question
Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:38 am
by mgp104
I've investigated this problem during Overlord, I believe that night bombing can be very effective at creating troop disruption. However it is very hit and miss but when you do hit the disruption caused is usually 99 (!).
The best tactic that I found was to only use night bombers on infantry units (ie. the ones that don't usually have HAA) so that you can bomb from ~8000ft. This gives you a reasonable chance of hitting the target, but beware flying over other targets that have HAA.
As far as night bombing industrial targets goes I've found a method that works reasonably well (around 50% of targets 100% damaged if the weather is good). I fly the bombers at their maximum altitude, for the lead unit always use the most experienced H2S radar equipped unit you have. Each target usually gets 5 bomber squadrons (maybe more if it is very high priority). Also take great care to minimise flying over any HAAs to minimise losses and maximise number of bombers hitting the target.
RE: Night Bombing Question
Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:37 pm
by Misconduct
ORIGINAL: mgp104
I've investigated this problem during Overlord, I believe that night bombing can be very effective at creating troop disruption. However it is very hit and miss but when you do hit the disruption caused is usually 99 (!).
The best tactic that I found was to only use night bombers on infantry units (ie. the ones that don't usually have HAA) so that you can bomb from ~8000ft. This gives you a reasonable chance of hitting the target, but beware flying over other targets that have HAA.
As far as night bombing industrial targets goes I've found a method that works reasonably well (around 50% of targets 100% damaged if the weather is good). I fly the bombers at their maximum altitude, for the lead unit always use the most experienced H2S radar equipped unit you have. Each target usually gets 5 bomber squadrons (maybe more if it is very high priority). Also take great care to minimise flying over any HAAs to minimise losses and maximise number of bombers hitting the target.
Yeah I was a little annoyed with fact I was flying at 7,000ft and sent over 200 bombers to saturate a target - something like a railroad or airfield and come up empty every time, If I could the bombers in daytime I would in a heart beat - but I will surely try bombing the troops at Normandy, if anything I hope I can at least disrupt the enemy ground units.
RE: Night Bombing Question
Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:38 pm
by mgp104
I think you're desperately unlucky to cause only minimal damage to railyards from 7000ft, I think I tried bombing airfields at night will little/no success and gave up on it. During 1943 I used bomber command to bomb railyards, but made sure that the most experienced squadrons or H2S eqquipped ones were leaders.
If you haven't got 100% Lanc/Hali IIIs by Overlord (I had although that was by starting in 1943) then make sure that the best squadrons have the mark IIIs (ie. the ones that all have H2S). I've also found that because 617 Lancs are armed with 12000lb bombs they are incredibly powerful, try to use them on very large factories (One night I got 100% damage on a capacity 15 engine factory using just 617!).
RE: Night Bombing Question
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:10 pm
by Misconduct
Ok I finally have a solution for night bombing, I record every AF where German fighters take off by day, and bomb the hell out of it by night. First 4 AF's I chose I racked up around 55 destroyed planes alone.
RE: Night Bombing Question
Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:30 pm
by Dobey455
ORIGINAL: Misconduct
Ok I finally have a solution for night bombing, I record every AF where German fighters take off by day, and bomb the hell out of it by night. First 4 AF's I chose I racked up around 55 destroyed planes alone.
Again remember that your bombers assessment of their damage to the target, at night is total BS. If you want to know what the night raid ACTUALLY did, get a successful day recon the next day.
RE: Night Bombing Question
Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:20 pm
by Hard Sarge
not sure I follow all that is being asked, but, if you are attacking targets in France, that is part of the issue, you only score target damage and not terror for Area targets in France, 100-200 bombers at night, is really a light raid, and even worse if the lead Squadron misses, it is mass/area effect tactic, you need lots of planes in the air, to make it work, unless it is a decoy, you should be putting up at least 300 bombers, alt depends on you, the higher up, the HARDer it is to hit something, the lower you are, the easier it is for them to hit you
Heavy Bombers at night, work well on shaking up Troops in the field, but if they are dug in, not going to do much damage wise
smaller raids are mainly for sneak, decoy, and trying for pinpoint target, and those should be small groups, most airfield raids (even more so at night) start to lose eff, after the 3rd unit bombs, overall, a crap shoot