How accurate can U.S. fighter-bombers be?

[McCoy]

I agree with you! Shaving Ryans Privates goes downhill right over the cliff after the initial landing. I don't like SPR at all n' feel that they should've ended it right there.

[Geek44]

It's unfortunate. The guy that made 'Schindler's List' in what I thought was a pretty honest way could have made a movie they'd be talking about in generations to come...but alas, you can take the director out of Hollywood but you can't take Hollywood out of the director. Having said that, I still think SPR is the closest attempt at honesty about a difficult subject. After it I saw 'Pearl Harbour' (if you don't get me started on it, I won't get you started either) but didn't even bother with 'Flags of our Fathers'. Speaking to somebody I kinda respect, they say I missed the point of 'Thin Red Line'...maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I don't think Hollywood makes good movies anymore. Film is an art form. Hollywood is too concerned with $$$. They have to stick to the formula. Personally, I'm bored with it. I haven't been to the movies since 'The Aviator' and for maybe three years before that. I'll see 'Pacific' when it comes out because my friend helped build the Japanese tanks they use in it, my brother-in-law also worked on it, the city scenes were filmed in Melbourne and some of the battle scenes were filmed near a national park my Dad and I used to go to. And to see if they did any better than SPR.
The landing scenes were mind blowing, but I still think they missed the mark as far as realism goes. Understandably so too. Who would want to see it as entertainment?
When you see Pacific, keep in mind that those Japanese tanks are powered by Ford engines and the hulls are built up with three or four millimetre sheet steel. The Sherman is 100% fibreglass above the tracks too.

[TRDG]

Thanks for the comments Zoners, I would'nt go that far in hammering SPR, the armour in the film, regardless of if it was KIA "hollywood" style is to die for in my opinion anyways, but back to the subject.

Is there any documentation or books that tell us any pilot stories (true ones now) about hitting armour,or was'nt it looked into that much? I would think it might have been a priority because the Allies were worried about German tanks. They always sent enough planes after them when/if they were spotted, did'nt they, maybe a pilots log book perhaps somewhere.....??

Cheers

Tom

[Leatchy]

I quite liked Flags, but Letters was awesome, I really liked it. Eastwood has come a very long way from his first direction roles.

As to the question of pilot accuracy during WW2. I have read quite a bit of stuff about WW2 and for the most part it seems that the ground/air communication and sighting systems were rudimentry. Weather had a dramatic effect on the ability to confirm targets or differentiate between friend and foe. Aircraft based friendly fire was a major cause of death and injury during WW2.

[Geek44]

I'm an aviation buff and I've never seen anything like that TRDG.

[TRDG]

Bummer, I'll have to start looking around and see if I can find anything as to sites that may have some info, and the local hobby shop, and library maybe.......??

Cheers, thanks!!

Tom

[Aussie Dave]

Originally Posted by LAH 1 SS

in an enclosed area such as town any tiger would be dead meat the enclosed space would have kept the explosion enclosed in the area which would have maximum effect. very rarely were tigers operating alone in the normandy campaign and they would never have gone into a town with streets that tght where movement was limited. the ss troops would have tried to capture the town first or clear the area before the tank entered as stated before its just the movies. there has been some evidence to prove that some tigers were destroyed by direct bomb hits or close to it so anything is possible

While I see your point, I have to disagree with the notion that Tigers wouldn't enter towns and city streets.

One very famous tank battle comes to mind....

Micheal Wittman at Villers-Bocage on June 13, 1944.


The RED 'X' on the map shows the location of Wittman's Tiger where it was disabled after a shell from a 6 pound anti-tank gun damaged one of its drive sprockets.
(You can see just how far Wittman ventured his tank into the town before being stopped.)

Wittman not only entered the town in his Tiger but he also did so without any supporting armour or infantry.


Cheers,
Dave

[Pirate-Drakk]

Fighters were very inaccurate when dropping bombs in WWII.

Even with a level bomber and a Norden bomb site it was hard to hit anything reliably. This is why tactical planes that were designed to drop bombs for close air support or on ships were generally DIVE BOMBERS. A dive bomber was pretty accurate because the bomb trajectory was nearly a straight line from the plane to the ground. The less arc in the bomb trajectory, the more accurate the attacks could be made.

Fighter planes lacked dive brakes and mechanical computers so they couldn't do level bombing very well and they couldn't do dive bombing very well either. I suspect the rocket attacks were actually more accurate in general because the rocket trajectory was more predictable even though they were unguided like the bombs.

Strafing was far more effective for a fighter, and if you look at the B-25 Mitchell, and the A-20 medium bombers they gave up on bombs for precision attacks and switched over to massive numbers of .50 cal MGs later in the war to great effect. The P-47 fighter was famed for it's 8 .50s but you never hear what a great bomb dropper it was...

Hitting a small target such as a tank with a fighter dropping a bomb is certainly possible, but difficult at best, even for the best of fighter pilots.

[Airchallenged]

SPR sucks after the opening scene. Sad part is that it is based on a true story...kinda. There really was a trooper in the 506 whose three brothers were all "killed" (one turned out to be a POW) within a weeks span. From there the movie is all fiction. The mother didn't receive all the letters on the same day. They didn't send a suicidal (and pointless) expedition out to get him. In fact he fought out the rest of the Normandy Campaign and was then transfered home.

[McCoy]

Originally Posted by Pirate-Drakk

Strafing was far more effective for a fighter, and if you look at the B-25 Mitchell, and the A-20 medium bombers they gave up on bombs for precision attacks and switched over to massive numbers of .50 cal MGs later in the war to great effect.

The main reason for that was that they were used for accurate skipbombin' in the PTO, they litteraly hosed the target with lead on the inflight. It was an effective tactic against Japanese ships in PTO.