David

From many conversations with people (both US and British) flying in
Europe in WWII (both bombers and fighters)

1. GB had no infrastructure to set up some kind of a ATC as we know it
for control of the fighters/bombers.

2. Any one, any time could take off and fly IFR over GB without any
type of a clearance.

3. On raids to Europe, aircraft took off and climbed on the same
heading if there were clouds, until they were on top and then circled
for rendezvous with other bombers or escort fighters.

As has been posted to this thread, mid air collision were very rare as
the powers that be had calculated.

Some of the talk about flights running through other flights head on,
These occurred while Squadrons were VFR under or on top and not IFR in
the clouds.

Long time ago in a far away place with a different set of rules from
what we fly by today.

Big John


On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 23:23:58 +0100, David CL Francis
wrote:

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 at 16:36:22 in message
, Corky Scott
wrote:
The bombers were only in combat for a few minutes out of the 12 to 14
hours they were in the air, unlike in Europe where for a while anyway,
they were under threat of attack the moment they crossed the French
coast. I saw a chilling picture of an entire B-24 group head on to a
B-17 group. This was during form-up, and both groups passed without a
collision, but a number of bombers missed each other by mere feet.
Someone had gotten their coordinates wrong... Collisions under these
circumstances were considered non combat.

I have read that 1% aircraft were expected to be lost in collisions
over the target.