Hi all, the Fairey Battle is much maligned aircraft, primary for its disastrous losses in May 1940, when it was called upon to destroy the bridges and pontoons across the Meuse. Attacking without fighter escort, flying low to avoid detection from German standing fighter patrols, it was badly exposed to AA ground fire, attacking vital strategic points which were sure to be well defended. Losses were simply horrendous. But was it so bad, the Blenheim, the new French Breguet 693 and the German Stuka all suffered catastrophic losses when caught alone without fighter escort, while operating in a tactical air role, attacking key points. If we put the Battle in an environment of clear air superiority, how well does she stand up to the task of attacking those bridges and pontoons? Firstly, she doesn’t have to approach targets at tree top, and be exposed to light AA flying to the target, which was something they did to avoid the German fighters, so her approach can be at something like 5,000 ft Secondly, she can dive bomb, not at the fantastic angles of the Stuka, but 60 degrees would surely give a better accuracy than level bombing at 5,000 feet. Thirdly she carried four 250lb General Purpose bombs, a good size for the time, which wouldn’t have any problems with pontoon bridges, and I suspect if all four could hit a steel truss bridge, they might well take a span down. She was very vulnerable to ground fire, in part due to no self-sealing tanks, and her acceleration away after the bomb release, despite being 1,000 lb lighter, was very poor. Self-sealing tanks could have been back fitted in late 1940, if not earlier, but being re-engined, which was greatly needed, meant a commitment to a tactical approach which without air superiority wasn’t viable. Nevertheless, she would have done ok for the time, in that environment, accepting the instillation of seal sealing tanks, and maybe some amour protection being fitted. What do you think? Regards Fatboy Coxy
As with much equipment available to the Anglo-French forces, the weapons were serviceable, if used intelligently.
I think it was a poor solution for a modern war like WW2...It had little plusses going for it. The Sturmovik was an example (eventually) of how to do it properly. There were many aircraft better suited and these were eventually used... The Blenheim and Stuka are other examples of pre-war aircraft having their deficiencies highlighted. (My avatar shot down five Stukas in five minutes) Looking for a way to make them useful, give them to training units.
If the enemy had decent air assets, ALL bombers of all nations suffered unsustainable losses when they attacked without fighter cover. Once the Luftwaffe found their vulnerable points both the B-17s and IL-2s went down in the thousands!
Thanks to the heavy armor protection, the Il-2 could take a great deal of punishment and proved difficult for both ground and aircraft fire to shoot down A major threat to the Il-2 was German ground fire. In postwar interviews, Il-2 pilots reported 20 mm (0.79 in) and 37 mm (1.46 in) artillery as the primary threat. While the fabled 88 mm (3.46 in) calibre gun was formidable, low-flying Il-2s presented too fast-moving a target for the 88's relatively low rate of fire, only occasional hits were scored. Similarly the attempts in Finland during the summer of 1944 to augment the small numbers of 20/40 mm AA in the field army by heavier 76 mm guns drawn from homeland defence proved also relatively ineffective and few Il-2s were downed despite attempting different tactics with time-fused fragmentation, contact-fused, and shrapnel ammunition: the heavy guns simply lacked the reaction times to take advantage of the brief firing opportunities presented by the low-altitude Il-2 attacks.[29] Single-barrel 20 mm anti-aircraft guns were also found somewhat inadequate due to limited firepower: one or two shells were often not enough to destroy the Il-2, and unless the Il-2 was attacking the gun itself, thus presenting effectively a stationary target, scoring more hits during a firing opportunity was rare.
Just like Stukas in Bob the Faireys pretty much got massive losses. Brave attacks but losses were horrible. Il2 Was a hard opponent to Germans until they got a 2cm cannon to bf109 after which the armament was no more a problem to Germans.
Do not forget the Kuhlmey unit. They flew with Stukas and Fw190 24/7 In summer 1944 Utti helping the Finnish Air Forces. The Major attack also included as I read as massive as 30 km Finnish bombers to destroy the Soviet tanks and attacking units. If the Soviets had broke though Finland had lost very propably.
