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From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: B17 Frontal attack
Message-ID: <1990Nov4.210341.4008@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 4 Nov 90 21:03:41 GMT
References: <1990Nov2.200555.26660@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington IN.
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From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib)
*>The Germans adopted the tactic of attacking head-on mainly because
*>they discovered that's where the least amount of defensive fire can
*>be brought to bear on the attacker. This is why models after the -F
*>had twin .50s in a chin turret below the nose.

*>Why would a frontal assault be more likely to set off the bombload
*>than, say, an attack from the side or bottom of the bomber?


I'm not sure. Perhaps it was due to less intervening 
metal in the way. Sakai's book (title: Samurai, put
together by Martin Caidin and published by Ballantine)
tells, in graphic detail, of the day his squadron 
tried this tactic for the first time. What was inter-
esting was how long it took for them to figure it out.
The Zeros were armed with 20mm cannon and 7.7 mm machine-
guns, by the way.

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