Posted by: CRVS

Message: Air to Air Bombing. Has anyone tried this online or offline?

Posted by: ik Jagdgeschwader 77

Message:

: Has anyone tried this online or offline?

The Germans dropped bombs from 109s onto b17s, but remember that their target was a formation of 500+ four engined bombers. It's nearly impossible in warbirds, though i have heard of freak occurances. A guy once described seeing a friend below being chased by a ki. He jettisoned his bombs from his f4u, and dove down at the ki84. Suddenly, before he ever fired a shot he was awarded the kill, apparantly one of the 500 pounders he had been carrying hit the unlucky ki :)

ik

Posted by: Thermo

Message: : Has anyone tried air to air bombing? Just being curious....

I have many times taken evasive maneuvers from falling 'sticks' of bombs.

I have never been hit by one in flight though.

JHL

Posted by: cvkilr

Message: : Has anyone tried air to air bombing? Just being curious....

yes a few months ago i was fooling around on the main and flew a ju88 mission from my field then spotted a b17 low, i chased him and climbed above then dove on him (took awhile) dropped all four bombs and i got the kill so i would assume the bombs did it not my otto, i was in cockpit view so i cant be totally sure but well i dont think an otto can blow up a b17 right away, i might have hit with two bombs though

i dove from a shallow angle and took damage from otto , it was pretty much blind luck, had no idea what i was doing but i let the bombs go when i saw him pass by my lower window and waited a bit longer, total blind luck. anyway it was fun, i have not been able to ever do it off line by the way, on a turning opponent.

try it out though, just not on me please :^)

Posted by: Pyro

Message: : Has anyone tried air to air bombing? Just being curious....

I've only seen a bomb impact a flying aircraft in WB once. A couple years ago, Quiz and I were testing something in a test arena with me in a B-17 and him in a some heavy fighter. We got done with whatever we were testing and I was watching the

scene from external view as he came diving in on me from a few thousand feet higher. I watched as he dropped a bomb and I could see it fall perfectly into me and destroy my plane.

That's the only instance I've seen or heard of an inflight aircraft taking a direct hit from a bomb.

-Pyro

Posted by: jarhed

Message: : Has anyone tried air to air bombing? Just being curious....

I've pulled this one off twice, first time by accident. I was

hvy in a F4U on a base attack mission. The enemy was all over me after the first pass, (I was carrying a couple 1000 lbers) anyways I had one left after my pass, and I was on the deck, maybe at most 100' at a pretty good clip, I had a boggie on my 6 (can't recall distance but less than 10 for sure) with no chance at evading while hvy, so I pickled my bomb, manuvered and checked 6 and noticed a kill awarded and no more boggie.

I've done it once since in about the same situation but was sort of hoping it would work and it did, not very kosher but " better him than me" ;-)

jarhed

Royal Knights

Posted by: Stiglr Stab/JG5 Eismeer

Message: Although not a conscious effort, I believe twice now I have dropped iron on an airfield and been astonished to get a plane kill of someone lifting off or sitting on the tarmac.

Historically, the Germans for a time experimented with the idea of dropping bombs on bombers. Heinz Knoke, in his book "I Flew for the Fuehrer" details the genesis of this tactic, which was soon abandoned in favor of the head-on pass strategy.

Posted by: Crucible 1/JG5

Message: : Although not a conscious effort, I believe twice now I have dropped iron on an airfield and been astonished to get a plane kill of someone lifting off or sitting on the tarmac.

: Historically, the Germans for a time experimented with the idea of dropping bombs on bombers. Heinz Knoke, in his book "I Flew for the Fuehrer" details the genesis of this tactic, which was soon abandoned in favor of the head-on pass strategy.

I forget the pilot, but it was used in at least one interception. The pilot got slightly forward and overhead the formation of b17's, then dropped his bomb using some sort of time-delay fusing. The bomb exploded in the middle of the formation, immeadiatley ripping the wing off one poor b17, and scattered the rest of the then scared to death formation.

The technique was ruled impractical.

Cruc