Reply To: Bombing Height

[John D Salt]

MartinR wrote:

So, if there is lots of AA, fly higher.

Yup.

Other factors that would influence the choice of altitude include the height of cloud on that day; I doubt that many WW2 tactical medium bombers had the ability to bomb through cloud with any accuracy, although of course the Germans had Knickebein and its succesors for attacks on strategic targets, and Oboe Mosquitoes were used by Bomber Command’s pathfinders.

There’s also the question of how your bomb fuzing works if you are trying to achieve penetration od a target; you may need sufficient altitude for the bombs to have worked up adequate velocity to penetrate.

Altogether, though, my shallow researches so far have led me to believe that medium altitude (say 10,000 to 15,000 feet) was the usual thing in most theatres for most nationalities, with only the RAF and USAAF and people doing anti-shipping strikes really attempting low-level work with medium bomnbers.

Corrections and expansions welcome from real airpower enthusiasts (I hesistate to say “airheads”).

All the best,

John.