On Mon, 24 May 2004 16:21:20 -0500, "Dan Luke"
wrote:

wrote:
There weren't that many German night fighters so if the
entire bomber swarm passed through the sector together,
the night fighter would not get an opportunity to attack
multiple targets. They basically took off, headed for an
assembly point and turned for the
target when they reached it.

You sure about that? I thought the Brit bombers attacked in a "bomber
stream" rather than any kind of group formation.
--
Dan

Please read what I said again Dan. I'm not claiming that they flew a
formation, what I said was that they took off and headed for an
assembly point, then turned for the target. The bombers all had to
head for the assembly point so that the swarm/stream could get into
the same flight path. If they did not do this, the bomber stream
would be greatly dispersed.

Perhaps assembly point is a poor term, use "initial point" or "turn
in" point instead and perhaps you'll see what I mean. They did not
actually "assemble" at the turning point, they just used it as a
navigation aid to locate where they were and turn to the target
heading, or the initial navigation point towards their target. Each
bomber did this individually and flew individually climbing as they
left their airfield.

So they weren't forming a formation, not in the sense of the US
daylight bombing, they were just arriving at this point and turning to
the target. From then on until they had the target in sight, each
individual bomber was responsible for it's own navigation. They often
could see other bombers in decent weather, and obviously could also
see each other being shot down.

During the bombing raid on Nuremburg in 1944, the weather was crystal
clear above a low cloud layer and the moon was bright. The bombers
stuck out like they were flying during the day. The Germans happened
to have numerous fighters orbiting several radio beacons directly in
the line of flight and once they released the fighters to engage, the
German pilots had little trouble finding targets. So bright was the
night that the Wild Sau (undirected single seat fighters, as opposed
to twin engine radar guided night fighters) figured prominantly in the
nights activities. Nearly 100 bombers were shot down.

Corky Scott