Sorry to post on your board, Pyro/hitech, but I see this too often and can't let it pass.
The reason bombers flew in massive groups was not for protection from fighters. They flew in massive groups so that they could get enough bombs on target to do any good. That is the ONLY reason. The formation style they flew in was developed to provide them with better defense against GROUPS of fighters, not singles.
They did not fly at maximum alt, they flew at an altitude that was determined by 2 factors:
1: The number of bombers in the raid, used to provide an idea of the accuracy required to destroy the target. The more bombers(or the larger the target), the higher they flew.
2: Ground defenses.
Fighters did kill a large amount of bombers in the ETO, but ground defenses killed more. Hell, forming up and equipment failures could cost them 5-10% of the group!
You will find very few stories of a solo LW coming across a solo(uninjured) bomber, where the LW attacked the bomber. In most cases the LW pilot did the smart thing called for help.
But, as Hitech as said, this is a game(and I include all of the WWII online sims in this), not real life.
Lizking
[This message has been edited by Gadfly (edited 05-08-2000).]
