"Corky Scott" wrote in message
...
The reason for this was due less to the robust construction of the
bomber or it's flight characteristics than to the Luftwaffe's orders
to concentrate on the heavy bombers at the expense of all other
operations. When the heavies were up, it was usually because the
weather favored visual bombing. That being the case, all other
bombers were usually also flying missions. The Luftwaffe did not have
the numbers to respond to each and every type of enemy incursion, so
they concentrated on the heavies.

So the Marauders kind of drew a bye when they flew on bombing
missions. They even got lucky with the AA artillery because most of
it was removed from the fronts to surround the cities in defense
against the heavy bomber attacks. But the missions were not a piece
of cake as any B-26 combat veteran can tell you, there was plenty
enough AAA still around to make missions harrowing.


And IIRC, the B-26 drew mostly low level attack missions which drew all
sorts of fire, most of it more accurate than the high level bombing!?!?