Re: (was B_5 Aft Arc)Bombers/raiders

Matt Tope wrote:

>Kevin Walker wrote:
>
>>Raiders are a fairly common factor in war.  A high speed (the long
>>ranged weapon is a bonus) ship that works in small numbers or alone,
>>keeping the enemy forces pinned in protecting valuable resources has
>>happened a fair amount in past conflicts.
>>
>Yep, eg: Golden Hinde, Emden, etc
>
>>In fact, bombers during wars of the past 70 years took on this role in
a round about way.  Raiding of this type helps to keep the enemies
production lower, make the situation more of an unknown for the enemy,
>>
>In regard to bombers...nope. Bombers only made fairly effective raiders
>(specfying a raider as an aircraft or vessel whose purpose it to attack
and
>destroy   economic (ie: Merchant vessels) targets rather than
naval/military
>units) at sea until the advent of escort carriers. 
>
And for the USN, a vast increase in the number of light AA armament on 
individual ships as well as ships dedicated to the air defense of other 
vessels.

>During the whole of WW2 bombers were pretty crap at hitting specefic
targets, ie: facilities in production centres, 
>
Something like 100 bombs for 1 hit

>hence area bombing was employed, which whilst great at killing people
did not achieve much else (German production rates increased
dramatically during 42-45 even whilst being plastered by the RAF by
night and the USAF by day).
>
ASAAF day bombing was still aimed at a specific target, such as a 
particular factory or rail yard, but much of the RAF nighttime raiding 
was dedicated to "De-housing".	 I.e. "if you destroy their homes, then 
they aren't effective factory workers".


>Neither the Royal Navy or the US Navy were unable to concentrate thier
main
>battle fleets thanks to raiders.
>
What do you mean, there were only 1,600 ships at the landings at Saipan.
 :)

>Giving that the Kreigsmarine of WW2 was pretty much dedicated to
surface raiding it actually encouraged the Royal Navy to concentrate
forces when hunting German warships down.
>
e.g. KMS Bismark and KMS Graf Spee

>Submarines, especially U-Boats, and USN subs in the Pacific were the
true
>raiders of modern times...but they relied on stealth and cunning, not
speed
>to acheive their success.
>
>A Raiders specefic target is merchant shipping, not warships. Design a
>raider with thrust 8 engines to avoid enemy warships, fine, but don't
arm it
>to deal with them...after all it's going to run away ;-)
>
Case in point: the Graf Spee and her sister ships (panzerschiffen ) were

heavily armed with a main battery of 6x 11-inch guns, making them 
capable of dealing with any merchant vessel or escort.	But they were 
only lightly armored and could not deal with a capital ship.

J