What is your favorite WWII medium bomber?

[ABWorsham4]

@ncscswitch:

I am glad you had the B-25 Mitchell on the list.

Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell too often is ignored by history, as is his namesake bomber…

The B-25 has my respect.

[dinosaur]

My “other bomber” would be the Memphis Belle.

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

@dinosaur:

My “other bomber” would be the Memphis Belle.

See that IS MY FIRST CHOICE. My ALL TIME FAVE is the B-17f. But that’s a heavy bomber.

[Guest]

@ABWorsham:

Which older U.S bomber was majorly exported to U.S.S.R? My limited time last night kept me from further researching this question.

The USSR received a lot of B-25 bombers via Lend-Lease, along with a lot of A-20 Havoc light bombers. Somewhere in my files I think that I have the exact number of each.

[a44bigdog]

B-25 Mitchell for all the reasons above noted.

Bristol Beaufighter.

[Jermofoot]

Gotta agree on the B-25.  I read a book a couple of years ago but don’t remember exactly what it was called, but it was good.  Wasn’t it the most prevalent US bomber or something?

And what distinction is made between a medium and heavy bomber?  Payload?

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

@Jermofoot:

Gotta agree on the B-25.  I read a book a couple of years ago but don’t remember exactly what it was called, but it was good.  Wasn’t it the most prevalent US bomber or something?

And what distinction is made between a medium and heavy bomber?  Payload?

I would say payload is one of the main things. Also, most all bombers considererd “heavies” were four engine planes at that time.

[a44bigdog]

Payload and mission objectives.

Heavy Bombers were viewed as strategic bombers while Medium Bombers were viewed as tactical bombers.

While my second pic of the Beaufighter was more of a heavy fighter than a medium bomber I would have to give a big nod to the JU88 for filling the role of the B-25. A twin engine airframe that seemed inifitley adaptable to a multitude of tasks.

[Guest]

General Mitchell would be pleased to know that all these years later his namesake bomber is still highly regarded.

“In the development of airpower, one has to look ahead and not backward and figure out what is going to happen, not too much of what has happened.”

“It is probable that future war will be conducted by a special class, the Air Force, as it was by the armored knights of the Middle Ages”

Both quotes:  Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell from his book “Winged Defense” 1924

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

The Mitchell was absolutely a wonderful machine with a nice range, payload and fire power. I can see why it’s winning. I would go so far as to say it’s the best medium bomber of WW2. Being partial to German aircraft, I love the JU-88 becuase it was so manueverable, it was used as a fighter many times. Dubbed “The wonder bomber”, its different variants failed, in my opinion to have adequate defensive guns for most, if not all of the war. It had 2 trainable 7.92 rear firing machine guns, one in the belly gondola and depending on the variant, up to 4 fixed guns in the nose & one fixed or trainable protuding out of the front canopy for a total of up to 5 frontal weapons. It’s a gorgeous plane.

I think they could have done better. My same opinion stands with the HE-111. The Browning 50 calibur with incinderary and armor piercing rounds had an excellent range and could fire more belt fed rounds in a trainable version as opposed to the 70 round saddle drum used in the 7.92.

I love the Ju-88 and 87 for their accuracy in bombing. Germany believed in dive bombers fanatically. I would go so far as to say the JU-87 Stuka was the best ground support bomber of the entire war because of it’s ability to work in such close proximity with friendly units.

[ABWorsham4]

The He-111’s designers made the mistake in thinking that bombers could fly at fighter speed. The He-111 was an awesome plane in the Spanish Civil War; however the years between that war and the War of 1939 caught up with the He-111.

I believe the Ju-88 was the first German bomber not built under the cloak of the German ‘Express Air Mail Service’.

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

@ABWorsham:

The He-111’s designers made the mistake in thinking that bombers could fly at fighter speed. The He-111 was an awesome plane in the Spanish Civil War; however the years between that war and the War of 1939 caught up with the He-111.

I believe the Ju-88 was the first German bomber not built under the cloak of the German ‘Express Air Mail Service’.

This is very true. We have to remember the beautiful HE-111 was originally a frickin passenger plane hiding under Germany’s cloak of military build up for conversion to bomber.

[Imperious Leader]

HE-111 is the best looking bomber hands down. Obviously the American B-17 or  B-26 whatnot would be the best as far as stats.

Also, if we were to include some of Germany’s designs for strategic bombers and include them, they were even greater than a B-17 in most respects.

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

My god I agree with Imperious SO much. That bomber is beautiful. But my favorite is the B-17f. The boys of the 8th and 9th that flew those planes into europe under no fighter escort were brave men and suffered tremendously to prove daylight strategic bombing was key to Allied Victory.

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

I’m so suprised the Ju-88 and Mitchell are tied. We clearly have voters here that appreciate not only an effective bomber, but a beautiful one at that. The Mitchell was so far ahead in terms of firepower and could kick way more ass in my opinion while the Ju 88 was so manueverable, it served as a fighter on many occasions. Not the greatest fighter, that’s just an example of how manuverable that thing was. In fact I believe this got started by the RAF in the Battle of Britain and carried over to our pilots. Thunderbolt, spitfire and hurricane pilots, probably all of them stationed in England that served as bombing escorts, reffered to any twin engine plane in the air as “Meat on the table.”

Source of refferance for that one was

“Spitfires, thunderbolts and warm beer”
The story of Lee Gover.

Very good book. Lee flew spitfires for the RAF as a volunteer before the US got involved. The English were so wonderful to the VERY few American and Canadian pilots who came over to risk their life when they didn’t have to. I believe one of the transports in Lee’s convoy on his way over was torpedoed and there was no survivors. And they had destroyer escort!! The cool thing about this book is what an amazing first person portrait of the times it is and what it was to be a pilot and see all the aircraft we’ve talked about, in action.

Lee was the only pilot in his squadron to return from Dieppe. He transfered to the Thunderbolt when the US came over and made him switch squadrons. He was not an ace, but that’s what gives the book part of its candor. Lee was an amazing pilot landing damaged aircraft all the time and was a brilliant trouble shooter mechanically speaking when something went wrong in the air. You get a look at how many pilots were actually killed in accidents.

God bless all those men.

[ABWorsham4]

Once day light ceased the Ju-88 armed with radar became a fearsome predator of R.A.F bombers. Some versions had extra cannons (20mm or 30mm) that could fire upwards and forwards from the upper fuselage.

[ABWorsham4]

Speaking of medium bombers, I feel for the Japanese bomber crews who operated the Betty, which was a flying gas can. Although it must be nice to have a 20 mm cannon for a tail gunner.