I upped a 190 from 74 just as the bomber formation was passing on their way south. I climbed to the southeast and put myself into a position to hit the bombers as the were leaving the target area. As I first got the bombers in sight I lined up, but found they had turned back to the west slightly. I then noticed what appeared to be the escort, and opted to parrallel the bombers course for a few minutes and wait for the escort to disperse. Once they had I started making headon passes. I managed to get about 6 head on passes in before hitting the coastline - by that time I'd killed one, and gotten an assist on 2 or 3, without taking any return fire. I made one last approach on a straggling box from the rear and got some good hits on one - my oil was hit in return and I rtbed.
I then switched to the allies to try and give some withdrawl cover - my Jug had just made it up to 25k when I crashed to the deskop.
With regard to the length of the mission - this was fun, but obviously can't be an every night kind of thing.
With regard to the escort, the biggest flaw was that there wasn't enough, and what there was stuck to the bombers from what I could see. It seems like it might be a better idea to split the escort up into a few smaller groups.
It seems that the bombers can take care of themselves - at first. The interceptors keep gradually pecking away and finally during the rtb stage it all falls apart.
I think it would be worthwhile to try splitting up the escort. Get one group to cross the coast a few minutes ahead of the bombers, sweep the fields where opposition is expected to up from and just bounce anything they see - be aggressive. If someone had attacked me while I was still climbing up I likely wouldn't have ever made contact with the bombers, or at least not until they had already hit the channel.
The second group (ideally the largest group) would stick with the bombers and attack any fighters that came up. As they lost altitude they would leave the bombers and sweep enemy fighter fields on the way home, once again trying to hit any interceptors before they got up to altitude.
The third group would cross the coast outbound a few minutes behind the bombers, and try to rendevous with them as the second group was fading away. They would carry out the same role as the second group - attack any interceptors, drive them off and then sweep fields while rtbing.
By this time the first group should have rtbed, and then upped again to pick up the bombers over the channel, to prevent the last minute massacres we keep seeing.
This method wouldn't keep the bombers covered 100% of the time, but should keep more of the interceptors dodging and engaging the escorts. If you could cut down the number of 109/190s making it to the bomber formation, and then make sure there was some escort during the withdrawl that would probably result in a serious reduction in bomber losses.
