Were spitfires really useless as a dive-bomber?

[Mister Fork]

Interesting read over at Vintage wings by RCAF WWII pilot Bill McRae who said that Spitfires were useless for dive bombing.  Bill McRae is a well known WWII RCAF pilot with over 250 combat sorties during WWII.

Article is here: http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/405/language/en-CA/Spitbomber.aspx.

Fork

[FLS]

The dive bombing problem seems to have been a training issue from the article.

[Mister Fork]

That's what I thought - but I decided to read other articles Bill wrote which are all online. When Bill was posted to the 401, he complained about the problem of the bombs getting stuck on the racks - they had an unconventional solution of putting a plunger just above the centre rack to push the bomb off the mount but you were stuck if the irons got stuck on the wing hardpoints... (http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Runway/9601/canada2.html)

Great read both pages BTW. And is is another great resource which talks about a lot of the engagements from surviving RCAF pilots who were interviewed about their experiences. http://www.flyingforyourlife.com/pilots/

[Chalenge]

The Spitfire was a relatively fragile aircraft, so yes in ground attack it was not soo good.

[Guppy35]

Keep it in perspective.  It was not a dedicated Fighter-bomber.

The first Spit-bombers were field modified Spitfire Vs from Malta when they went on the offensive.   

There were trials with any number of variants in regards to dropping bombs.   In early 44 the first couple of England based Spitfire IX squadrons got Spits modified to carry bombs.  These were Spit IX with universal wings and bomb racks added.  The stress on the wings was a problem if the bomb failed to release as was the case on a few occasions.  They were used to go after V-1 sites and the like.  Post D-Day the Spitfire LFIXe and XVIe with clipped and strengthened wings arrived with a centerline bomb rack and wing racks or rocket rails.  These were used by 2 TAF in the fighter bomber role.  They did the job they were given.

Probably the most well known Spitfire bombing run was the one made by six Spitfire XVI of 602 Squadron on March 18, 1945 when they ran a precision low level attack on the V1/V2 headquarters in The Hague on March 18th 1945.

A Spitfire XII pilot who I got to know fairly well finished the war on XVIs flying ground attack.  His take on it was that due to the Luftwaffe having dried up, they had nothing else to do with all the Allied fighters so they kept them busy dropping bombs.   He was shot down dropping a 500 pounder on a Sub pen.  He was still bitter about it as they all knew that there was no way the bombs were going to do any damage.  He finished the war as a POW. 

I've never talked to or corresponded with a Spit pilot who thought a Spitfire carrying bombs was a good idea.  But they were also fighter pilots not bomber pilots and it was never going to feel right.

As a side note, the Griffon Spitfires were considered better for dropping bombs as the view over the nose was better then the Merlin birds.

Spitfire XII MB878 that was used in "Trial Mareth" to test the XII's compatibility with dive bombing. 



The Spit XII squadrons never dropped a bomb operationally, but did get time lugging them in practice for the possibility.  They did lose one XII during the dive bombing practice too possibly to the problem with the bomb not coming unstuck.

The bomb release mechanism was basically a cable running into the cockpit that the pilot pulled.  It was the same as used for the DT.  Another Spit XII pilot I talked to had it come off in his hand when he tried to drop his DT.  No luck and he was unable to switch tanks so he ended up crash landing and becoming a POW.

[B3YT]

RAF lost quite a few MKVIII due to wings shearing during dive bombing too .  but that was due to how they were assembled after transfer . The whole fleet was grounded for 3 months while they rebuilt the wings .  The pins connecting  the wings to the fuselage , instead of cooling the pins and then heating them in the airframe they just hammered them in . This warped the holes giving room for flexing . as the spit would roll over then pull out of the dive the wings would fold up from the air pressure. 

[icepac]

Uber GV bomber.

[Squire]

Most of the RAF and RCAF Spitfires that flew with the 2nd TAF 1944-45 had a secondary fighter-bomber role added to their medium-low alt fighter role. Not dive bombing per-se just jabo. No. 126 Wing (RCAF) flew both roles in Spitfires from before D-Day to VE Day in the ETO and their ground tally included:

4468 enemy vehicles destroyed or damaged.
1569 rail trucks flamed or holed.
426 rail lines cut.

The Wing went through 4426 500lb bombs which gives you an idea of their use. They were a common enough weapon despite Jabo not being its primary role.

[Angus]

Is there anything that makes a Spitty WORSE at lobbing bombs than it's contemporaries at the same time?
The only thing that I can think of is the sensitive elevator control, however it comes with a plus, - highly effective, and no piston engined aircraft has recovered from as high speeds as the Spitfire.

[Rob52240]

Obviously the small bomb load would limit it's targets but in game the 16 is my favorite dive bomber for taking out armor on the ground.  Those 250#ers will take out a tank if you're accurate with them.  After swooping down the light airframe and relatively light remaining bombs make climbing back up to diving / combat altitude easy as pie.