G5 LIZ, G8 Rita or B17 as torpedo bomber

[guctony]

I know its a dull question but was it ever considered to use 4E bombers with torpedo load out in WW2. or in game terms would it fit to any Mod as a logic. Could 4 torpedo load out would be feasible or 2 Torp is the maximimum logical loadout.

[Fishbed]

Wasn't really. They make for too obvious targets. Pre-war everybody on each side agreed that torpedo attack planes would suffer horrendous losses, and we're talking single-engine planes there. Anything bigger was deemed to be naturally vulnerable, save for some speed advantage making them somewhat survivable (but even then, the requirements of a good torpedo run would nullify any speed advantage).
In operations the biggest the US went for was the B-26 (with lackluster results) & the PBY, and for the IJN the H6K & the H8K in theory (but I doubt it was ever used successfully operationally - or at all. Night attack successes I know of were all carried by G4Ms).

[Barb]

Brits used Hampdens, Beauforts, Beaufighters and Wellingtons as twin engine torpedo planes. Suffered quite losses due to strong german flak.
Wellington was used as night search torpedo planes when equipped with radar - they got some successes over the med.

Ideal setup was to have some torpedo planes mixed with bomb equipped ones. Rockets helped too. But the cost of the European Anti-Ship ops was huge for the tonnage sunk anyway.

[Leandros]

The Germans did some work on minimizing losses to torpedo bombers in the Mediterranean by using an "angling technique" - just like their submarines did. Unlike a submarine, torpedo-bombers had to drop their load closer to the enemy ship because the launching could be immediately observed from the target, and therefore evaded. By approaching the target on an angle, say 45 degrees, the bomber did not have to pass over, or close to, the target. The ideal attack was for two parallel-flying bombers to approach the target on opposite courses on each side of the ship. Either way the ship evaded it would show its broadside to a torpedo. Those He111s carried an advanced torpedo calculator with the ability to adjust the parameters of the torpedo immediately before launching. They also carried a pair of under-slung torpedoes.

It is described in "Torpedo Los" by Rudi Schmidt.

I should think it possible to use a similar technique on B-17s or 24s. Particularly in open ocean areas where no enemy fighter escorts were available. But they would have to be adapted to it. After all, the "FIDO" was carried by the B-24.

Fred