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Mike Scholl -> RE: Best Mediuim Bomber for Pacific operation (1/21/2005 6:42:57 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: JohnK
quote:
ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl
Based on availability and effectiveness, I'd have to say the Betty.....The load wasn't
the biggest, the defense not the strongest, and the construction certainly not the
sturdiest.., but the range is the key.....The size of the Pacific made the range in-
valuable.....The game over-rates it--but it was still truely incredable for a two-
engined (or even a 4-engined) bomber.....And in the Pacific Theatre, range was
the trump card.
Bergerud in "Fire in the Sky" considers the Betty one of the worst aircraft designs of World War II and I'd tend to agree.
What great accomplishments of the Betty, exactly, can you point to in World War II? (Remember Force Z was sunk by Nells).
Basically there was no point in the Betty having a range longer than the Zero. A shorter range, better armored aircraft would have been more useful.
JOHNK I think I made it obvious that the design of the Betty WAS a very one-legged
stool in my opinion as well......But it could carry a meaningfull and effective load for a
huge distance and be a very real threat on arrival......Which means that one unit of
Betty's can force the Allies to put up an awful lot of CAP in an awful lot of locations.
Strategically this makes them very valuable as they also force convoy escorts over
an enormous area as well......And yes, they were part of a "line" of Japanese Mediums
that continued throughout the war.....The were the replacements for the Nells, and they
would be replaced themselves at the end of the war by the Francis.......But for the ma-
jority of the war, they were the representative of this "line" the Allies faced.....And the
huge range of threat they represent probably added months to the length of the war by
forcing the Allies into greater protection of their route of advance than would have been
needed without this threat.
Were they great planes overall?....Probably not.....But the question asked was what was
the best medium bomber for the War in the Pacific?.....And this was the theatre the Japs
designed them for.....They were available throughtout the war in adequate numbers
(for the Japanese, at least) to be a continuous factor in Allied planning......And if the
Italians had had them available in the Med, the British would have had a much tougher
time as their shipping would have been under threat from a few miles outside of
Gibralter to a few miles outside Alexandria and even in the Suez Canal.
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