In article , Keith Willshaw keithNoSpa
writes
In daylight they would have suffered excessive losses. The Mosquitoes
of Bomber Command were excellent night bombers but unless
you have long range fighter escorts they would not have survived
over Germany in 1943.

I was assuming long range fighter escort as that was the only way
daylight bombing was ever going to work. Without it, losses would be
high as they were with all other types.

Not really. Discarding the waist gunners and fairing over the positions
would have saved several hundred pounds and cruising at 30,000 ft
the B-17 would have been a tough target for German nightfighters.

On that basis, removing the waste guns (of questionable use anyway) and
fairing over might have been a better idea for daylight ops.

--
John