U.S. Army Air Corps Operations
The U.S. Army Air Corps' precision strategic bombing campaign against German industries was only possible during the day. At first this was not seen as an issue; the Corps' newest bombers, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator, were the most heavily-armed in history. Close formations of them were planned, creating a crossfire of .50 caliber machine-guns that would fend off the enemy.
The plan was quickly undermined. Hitting a fast-moving fighter with guns in a turret proved extremely difficult; hitting a slow-moving bomber from a fighter with a gunsight was much easier. USAAF bomber losses gradually increased, and experimental "gunships" like the YB-40 did nothing to reduce them.
It was not until the introduction of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt that the bombing raids could claim a measure of success. Able to carry large Lockheed-designed drop tanks, the fighters were able to escort the bombers for much of their missions. The first Allied fighters over Berlin were 55th Fighter Group P-38s on March 3, 1944. When the Merlin-powered North American P-51 Mustang was introduced, with a laminar-flow wing for efficiency, the final escort fighter development of the war was complete.
Read more about this topic: Escort Fighter
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