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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: B17 Frontal attack
Message-ID: <1990Nov4.210224.3836@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 4 Nov 90 21:02:24 GMT
References: <1990Nov2.200555.26660@cbnews.att.com>
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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

In article <1990Nov2.200555.26660@cbnews.att.com>, Sloth writes: 
*Iskander Taib writes:
*>The Japanese actually had a pretty healthy respect for
*>the B-17s.... It
*>took them a long time before they discovered that a
*>head-on attack was devastatingly effective. Apparently
*>shells coming head-on would set off the bombs and one
*>burst was often enough.

*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.

two other reasons:  first of all, a head-on pass involved the
least exposure because of the great closing speed, whereas a tail
pass, involved maximum exposure do to the very slow closing speed.
second of all, the most critical mission personal (navigator,
bombadier, pilot, copilot) are all in the front, behind relatively
flimsy transparent materials

*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 don't buy this either; the bombs are located back between the
wings.  besides, there are various safety devices to help prevent
explosions, and explosives of this type are designed to be fairly
safe until intentionally detonated anyway.  if you really truly
wanted to knock one down, kill the forward crew members, or try to
set an engine on fire (the film didn't entirely manage to get across
how terrifying an engine fire was to a crew; most B-17s with serious
engine fires didn't make it back.)

richard
-- 
richard welty         518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
welty@lewis.crd.ge.com                 ...!crdgw1!lewis.crd.ge.com!welty            
``We're in a road movie to Berlin, can't drive out the way we drove in''
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