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Is it historically correct that B-17s and other large bombers can be used against ships at sea?

As far as I know, they were used mainly to drop huge bomb-loads against industrial areas, ports cities etc, from high altitudes. I though ship attacks would require precision bombing and high manueverability (i.e. dive- or fighter-bombers).

So, is using level bombers against shipping "gamey"? Does anyone have any historical info on this matter?

B-17s were historically used against shipping, especially early on in the war. They rarely hit anything though. There's been LOTS of discussion about whether they're too effective in UV. I don't think so, but some do... Search around for them if you ever want to see some heated discussions.

B17 were used against shipping but not all that effectively, there are records of them hitting a few transports and one or two destroyers.

The medium bombers on the other hand were much more effective,
Mitchells, Maruders, Hudsons etc, expecially when using skip bombing technique's and strafing targets at low alts.

I seem to think that the B-17 are way too effective in this game. I have had a transport TF just mauled by about 30 of them. I could see it if they were in port unloading but this was on the high seas [:@]. Sometimes dumb luck is nice but this happens all too frequently IMO.

I think I will restrict my B17s to ground, port and airfield attacks in the future then. Makes things more difficult I suppose, but it wouldn't be fun if it was easy - wouldn it [;)]

Oups - now I see why I couldn't find any discussions about this before posting. I forgot to set the time limit for the search properly, so I just searched the last month's posts. Sorry if I reopened an over-discussed and old issue.

B-17s on a few occasions hit IJN transports and destroyers using medium altitude level bombing.

5th Air Force B-17s also pioneered skip-bombing and were successful at it. However, it was decided that they (and B-24s) were better used as long range level bombers against airfields and other ground targets, and the low-level work was left to the faster and more manuverable medium and light bombers.

B-17s were used quite a bit for naval search. They often packed a few bombs along to drop on targets of opportunity.

They did not execute "massive" anit-shipping missions, although they did frequent Rabaul and drop bombs on anything resembling shipping.

I replicate this by using a portion for naval search, and the remainder for air and port raids.

My opponents do not excperience 30 ship B-17 strikes against shipping, but occaisonal bombs on damged ships and 30-50 ship airfield and port raids.

But keep in mind that the IJN was concerned with LBA and took steps to mitigate its effect. A UV IJN player may be a bit more aggressive and suffer more than "historical" losses in consequence to their more than "historical" aggressive approach. (Doesn't change the fact that B-17s are a bit too effective in an anti-shipping role)