There is another side to this issue, in that the pilots killing the B-17's are able to get a LOT of practice in this sim. The pilots attacking the bombers have quickly learned how to minimize the effects of a single bomber's defensive fire while growing increasingly effective with their own weapons. Fighters in AH are able to get in close and get a large volume of fire on the target, often with plenty of time to do so.
It wasn't often in WW2 that B-17's flew alone, or even in 2's and 3's like we see in AH. They usually had the combined defenses of dozens of bombers to ward off attacks, allowing the fighters only a minimum amount of time to actually fire on their target. Luftwaffe fighters were forced to carry many heavy cannons so that they could get enough shells onto the target during a short firing pass to do enough damage to disable or destroy a bomber. Bombers that fell behind the formation (stragglers) were quickly singled out and destroyed much in the way we see here in AH.
MiG
