soc.history.war.world-war-ii

"Scott M. Kozel" wrote:

>
> >
> > And what was the success rate for the B-17 against
> > ships at that point in the war?
>
> They came close to hitting warships maneuvering
> at about 30 knots.
>
> Slow or stationary transports would have been
> much easier to hit. They would have had to hit
> only part of them to disrupt the invasion.

If they nearly hit a moving warship it would have been a stroke of luck.
Their record of bomb accuracy was not very good. When you research bomb
accuracy for high altitude bombs they do not show direct hits. Instead,
they show the percentage of bombs that landed within 1000 feet of the
target. In Oct/ 43, for instance, the 8th Air Force's accuracy rate
showed only 16% of bombs hit within 1,000 feet of the target.