night bombing tactics

[AirGriff]

Any words of wisdom on night bombing techniques for the allies? Targets, altitudes, plane types and so on? I'm having negligible results with my admittedly very limited attempts at it.

[dtravel]

Until you have truely massive numbers of B-29s, don't bother. Night bombing got nerfed into uselessness a few patches back.

[Halsey]

ORIGINAL: dtravel

Until you have truely massive numbers of B-29s, don't bother. Night bombing got nerfed into uselessness a few patches back.

[:-][:D][:D][:D]

[worr]

I use it to train IJA forces where allied fighter cover is too stiff.

[BrucePowers]

How about at high altitude over real (not tiny defenseless bases). Would this increase the experience of your unit and not be too gamey?

[alfrake]

ORIGINAL: dtravel
Until you have truely massive numbers of B-29s, don't bother. Night bombing got nerfed into uselessness a few patches back.

I admit its not quite the great strategic victory, but B-17 and Liberator night bombing of my Japanese base at Rangoon is killing a half dozen airplanes every night in mid 1942. Doesn't do anything else, but it sure is annoying watching airplanes die when I have no possible response. (120 Nells DAY bombed Dacca against no CAP and got just one B-17).

[jumper]

Hi all,
are there higher operational losses during night bombing?

There should be IMO - especialy in case of low xp crews..

[Sardaukar]

Even now one can get sometimes good results with night port attacks.

[dtravel]

Just so people know, I say that night bombing has been nerfed into uselessness because air units that are designated as night units, equipped and supposedly trained for night operations, are now completely unable to land a single bomb on an enemy airfield or port.  Ever!  I've had night-fighter units bombing the same target for months, flying almost every night and have yet to see a single hit.
 
Alfrake: How many planes do you have based at Rangoon and how many B-17s/B-24s are in those raids?

[jolly_pillager]

LOTS of planes at Rangoon and two BG's attacking (one B-17 and one LB-30).

On a typical raid half the bombers fly which amounts to about 50ish bombers over the target per raid. Also note that these raids are at long range (11 hexes)

[dtravel]

ORIGINAL: jolly_pillager

LOTS of planes at Rangoon and two BG's attacking (one B-17 and one LB-30).

On a typical raid half the bombers fly which amounts to about 50ish bombers over the target per raid. Also note that these raids are at long range (11 hexes)

Then I'd say that the same attack during the day would be destroying at least three, if not four or five, times as many aircraft on the ground.

[jolly_pillager]

...and would be unable to fly again for 3-4 days due to morale and damaged aircraft as well as suffering probably a 5-10% loss rate per raid.

This means that the night bombing can kill as many planes in a month, say, without losing nearly as many airplanes. On the downside they will never trash the airfield...but at this stage it's about keeping the score above 4-1 and training the bomber crews up for later. It's also nice to not allow his Oscar pilots free training (and even kill one or two on occasion).

I have come to the conclusion that the superiority of the Zero is so absolute (often achieving 3-1, 4-1 or higher...not very historical there, BTW) that the Allies should NOT fight it on offensive missions and should be extremely choosy about where to defend against it until 1943.

Of topic a little I would say that this theory applies to the entire Allied effort...fighting the Japanese in 1942 only loses assets for you for little gain as the coding makes the japanese out to be supermen for this time frame. the best strategy is to withdraw fast to a defensive line, fortify heavily and to the exclusion of all else, and wait for qualitive and quantitive superiority before trying to counter-attack.

[ny59giants]

You need to take the Allied "island hopping" technique to the fighters. Hit the Japanese where the Zeroes are NOT. [&o]

Until the P-38's and follow up fighters start arriving, going up against Zeroes is usually a no win situation.

Night bombing is good to build up experience as long as op loses don't mount up.