This is from the 8th Air Forces, it’s the stats of every mission flown in ETO , what the target was, how many aircraft, crashed, arrived on target, air loses , ect:
http://www.taphilo.com/history/8thaf/8thaf-missions.xlsIt makes for interesting reading and review, it shows how poorly the initial missions were and how the lose rate was so high because the bombers were un-escorted. Some of the losses were so bad that missions had to be canceled while they waited for replacements of aircraft and men.
So why is it that the un-escorted bombers in AH pretty much roam as they please and generally when engaged with fighters the result is far different from what actually happened?
Shouldn’t the un-escorted bombers in AH suffer statistically the same fate as did the aircraft they were modeled after?
What’s different, could it be that the guns of the three bomber box in AH are linked where their counter part of WWII could not coordinate their defensive fire between aircraft in formation. The best they could do was to coordinate fire between themselves on the same plane, but not plane to plane.
I’ve seen fighter after fighter attacking a box of unescorted bombers only to be shot down time after time. There is something not right here. Fighter against un-escorted bombers did much better in WWII then they do in AH. What do you think?