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Skip Bombing with B-17

J

JoeDunlap

Charter Member
I found this posted on a Model Warship site I frequent and am copy/pasting the post in its entirety. Something I had never hear of...

I like to read up on ships that are featured in the modelwarships gallery and found an interesting note on the AOBA.
“3 April 1943:
Moewe anchorage. Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortresses" of the Fifth Air Force's 43rd Bomb Group attack moored AOBA. The big bombers skip-bomb from between 75 and 250 feet with delayed-action fused 500-lb. bombs. A direct hit on AOBA explodes two Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedoes stored aboard and sets the ship afire while the B-17's .50-cal. machine guns strafe her decks. HATSUZUKI assists in fire-fighting. AOBA is flooded and has to be beached to avoid sinking. Destroyer FUMIZUKI is also damaged lightly by a near-miss. The Americans suffer no losses and the 43rd claims two 'probable cruisers' sunk.”http://www.combinedfleet.com/aoba_t.htm

This is from the 43rd Bomb Group log
In a period of four days beginning on 1 April, 21 B-17's of the 43rd Group and 9 B-24's (probably from the 90th Group) harassed ships at anchor in Kavieng harbor. The B-24's dropped 500-pound bombs from 5,000 feet and observed large explosions. Some of the 43rd Group's B-17's also attacked from medium altitude, but the Fortresses skip-bombing from 75 to 250 feet caused the greatest damage. The official reports indicated that a 6,000-ton vessel was "left sinking," and two to four destroyers were damaged. That mission, which General Douglas MacArthur described as "a honey," considerably reduced the enemy's capabilities of supplying its beleaguered garrisons in New Guinea.
 
I use the Firepower B-17 for skip bombing by adding a loadout of a torpedo in the bomb bay. I fly a low level, high speed mission profile and release close to the target. The torpedo's speed in the water is just slow enough to mimic the delayed action fuse they used for the bombs so you can get over and past the ship before the explosion. Granted the exterior visual is not accurate, but to tell you the truth I am always way too preoccupied in the cockpit during this phase of the mission to mess around with other views anyways.
Coming down on a ship like that with bird that size is damned interesting.
 
I use the Firepower B-17 for skip bombing by adding a loadout of a torpedo in the bomb bay. I fly a low level, high speed mission profile and release close to the target. The torpedo's speed in the water is just slow enough to mimic the delayed action fuse they used for the bombs so you can get over and past the ship before the explosion. Granted the exterior visual is not accurate, but to tell you the truth I am always way too preoccupied in the cockpit during this phase of the mission to mess around with other views anyways.
Click to expand...

It sounds like all that's needed then is a new 'torpedo' weapon that looks like a bomb. You could simply swap one of the bomb m3d models for the topedo one and rename it the same. The effects line for the wake could be edited out too I guess.
 
Pat Pattle said:
It sounds like all that's needed then is a new 'torpedo' weapon that looks like a bomb. You could simply swap one of the bomb m3d models for the topedo one and rename it the same. The effects line for the wake could be edited out too I guess.
Click to expand...

It's too bad the gun positions won't fire at ground targets. Having all this going on AND the gunners blazing away at the ship would be quite a spectacle.
 
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