Tribute to WW2 air combat

[CJ]

Pretty great video of air combat in WW2, a lot of really moving moments in here that I've never seen.

[68RR]

8th Sqn plane runs into the blast from the bombs dropped by the previous a/c..

[CJ]

god lord why are they so low on a bombing run?

[Mach1Run]

skip bombing maybe?

[tribaltalon]

thats a B-25 Mitchell right? it almost looks more like a lancaster from the front view, but it doesnt have the 4 motors.

[CJ]

skip bombing maybe?

Very possible, but there shouldn't any detonation away from a dam.

[mikec]

Some haunting footage in that clip.

[Mach1Run]

Very possible, but there shouldn't any detonation away from a dam.

I thought it was used against shipping as well. Of course it also be a case of plane A drops a bomb while plane B goes in to strafe and then wrong place wrong time.

Hard to tell, it looks like a B25 but I can't make out the nose well enough to tell which variant.

[4bangen]

Those guys where truly the best of the best. I have a DVD series at the house that shows a lot of footage and interviews a lot of the pilots. Gets pretty emotional listening to those old men talk about what they went though. One P-51 pilot talked about flying bomber escort, made it almost all the way back to base, got comfortable, took off his mask and hung loose for the last bit of the flight home, when out of know where an enemy fighter dropped in and shot down the bomber killing the whole crew before he could do anything. He said not a day goes by he doesn't think about those boy's he let die.

[68RR]

CJ..

Yes skip bombing. The B-25 strafers were the brainchild of Gen Kenney and brought to life by Paul I "Pappy" Gun..
I've posted many of these before, but as a quick refresher..

Pappy and his first strafer "Margaret




Practicing on the "Moresby" wreck




My dad received his first Air Medal on this mission..



out barge hunting. The A-20's were also converted





My good friend Bill Beck during the Battle of the Bismark Sea


Bil over Lae.. He named his plane "LAWNMOWER"

[CJ]

I thought it was used against shipping as well. Of course it also be a case of plane A drops a bomb while plane B goes in to strafe and then wrong place wrong time.

Hard to tell, it looks like a B25 but I can't make out the nose well enough to tell which variant.

I assumed you were talking about bouncing bombs, the drum like bombs. Granted, if this was a BB going off it would have vaporized that bomber.

That's a B-25 Mitchell. B-24's have 4 engines.





Awesome.



Little too low.

Pretty badass stuff 68RR, got any more?

[Mach1Run]

I am trying to remember the story, I can't remember if they were using the drum style bombs or not but the idea was similar. Instead of trying to go through the decks they would drop low and fast and try and get it to go off against or under the hull. Been a looooong time since I read the book that talked about it.

Here's the wiki which is better than my memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_bombing

Skip bombing was a low-level bombing technique developed by Italian pilot Giuseppe Cenni[1] flying German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka aircraft during attacks on Allied ships off the coast of North Africa, between May and October 1941. After Pearl Harbor (December 1941), it was used against Imperial Japanese Navy warships and transports by Major William Benn of the 63rd Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group (Heavy), Fifth Air Force, United States Army Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific area theater during World War II. General George Kenney has been credited with being the first to use skip bombing with the U.S. Air Force.[2][3]

The first time skip bombing was used by U.S. pilots was at the base of Rabaul on New Britain. The United States 5th Army Air Force used B-25 bombers to attack and destroy Japanese ships. It proved to be a highly effective method and received growing popularity. The only drawback was that it took a lot of skill to perfect; sometimes the bombs would detonate too soon, or in some cases, sink.[4]

The bombing aircraft flew at very low altitudes (200–250 ft (61–76 m)) at speeds from 200–250 mph (320–400 km/h; 170–220 kn). They would release a "stick" of two to four bombs, usually 500 lb (230 kg) or 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs equipped with four- to five-second time delay fuses at a distance of 60–300 ft (18–91 m) from the side of the target ship. The bombs would "skip" over the surface of the water in a manner similar to stone skipping and either bounce into the side of the ship and detonate, submerge and explode under the ship, or bounce over the target and explode as an air burst. All outcomes were found to be effective. Unlike "Upkeep" or "Highball", this technique used standard types.

Various aircraft types were used for skip-bombing attacks, including B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, and A-20 Havoc attack bombers. These were supported by heavily-armed Royal Australian Air Force Bristol Beaufighters, which would suppress Japanese antiaircraft fire with their machine guns and cannon. The Soviets used lend-leased A-20 Havocs and P-40 Tomahawks as well as Il-2 Shturmoviks (also used for air defence suppression). Skip bombers were often used by aviation of the Soviet Northern Fleet in combination with torpedo bombers (usually the same A-20 aircraft, skip bomber and torpedo bomber operated in pairs). Skip bombers were called "topmachtoviks" (топмачтовики) in Russian, because they were flying "at the level of ship mast tops".

A notable use of this technique was during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (March 2–4, 1943), off the northern coast of New Guinea.

[CJ]

I am trying to remember the story, I can't remember if they were using the drum style bombs or not but the idea was similar. Instead of trying to go through the decks they would drop low and fast and try and get it to go off against or under the hull. Been a looooong time since I read the book that talked about it.

Here's the wiki which is better than my memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_bombing

It would appear this was one of those early detonations.

[46Tbird]

That first vid had some awesome footage. First time I've seen the 262s in combat like that.

Anything can and did happen during combat missions. Here, a B-17 was flying just out of formation and had its horizontal stabilizer ripped off by a bomb dropped from the camera plane. All crew were lost.

You can just make out the bomb about to strike the airplane in the first photo, and see the damage in the second photo.

[CJ]

The crew was lost? It should still be able to fly without one side of the stabilizer and an elevator, at least, you would think so.