WW2 War Birds – P51 Mustang – When the Bombers Could Not Get Through
In the beginning of WWII the belief was that the bomber would always be able to get through and do significant damage and aid in the success of missions. Even as late as 1942 escort fighter planes held a low priority because the military believed if you packed the bombers close enough together they could fight off any fighter planes that came their way.
Part of the problem was that at the time there was not a fighter plane available that could go fast enough or far enough to keep up with bombers. Also, it was a tactic that had never been used and change comes hard to most.
In 1943 the Allied forces started a new type of raid called the Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO). This meant that they were doing daytime, as well as nighttime raids. Bombers started doing routine attacks farther in than the escort fighters were able to travel. At first this was very effective because the Germans weren’t expecting it so there was very little resistance. The success rates were high. However within 6 months, the Germans had organized and were fighting back with a vengeance. In three months the Allied forces lost 137 of their planes. This was 26% of the attack planes. This caused many missions, especially long range missions to be cancelled.
These heavy losses caused the Allies to reconsider their tactics and look for new and other options. After much discussion and searching they decided they needed to find a plane that could be an effective bomber escort. They needed a plane that was reliable and had a lot of space for fuel.
The P-51 Mustang was the answer Bodrum Escort to their problems. Many of them became available in the winter of 1943. They were a simple plane that was reliable and had a huge space for an internal fuel load. With the addition of external tanks it would be able to fly with the bombers deep into Germany and back.
When they started raids again in 1944 they had changed the strategy. With the addition of the P-51’s they were able to layer the attacks. They would use the planes that were able to escort the bombers for shorter distances first and then they would hand off the escort duties to the P-51’s to continue the full raid into Germany and back. This protected the bombers and was very successful.
The air war changed when the P-51’s were used as a fighter plane instead of an escort. They were easy to maneuver, could fly fast, and fly long distances. When they started attacking the German fighter planes instead of just escorting the bombers the Germans lost 17% of their fighter pilots in 1 week because they were unprepared. This turned the Allies from a defensive position to an offensive position in the air war and Germany could not recover. Now you can enjoy the success of flying your own P-51 fighter plane and winning the battle with a high end RC electric replica of this famous Mustang.