Placing the Fairey Battle.

[Steve49]

Graham, It wasn't my intention to suggest the Skua's should have done better, rather to point out even dive-bombers of the 1940's were not that accurate. Lets not forget the cruiser was alongside a quay at the time of the attack.

As for the BC attack I guess the reported 'two squadrons' relates to 12 Wellingtons (from 9 and 115 Sqn) and 12 Hampdens (from 50 Sqn) launched on a general anti-shipping strike in the Bergen area on the afternoon of the 9th (not the next day). Not clear how many of the aircraft actually attacked the cruiser, as some attacked nearby shipping, 50 Sqn claiming one vessel sunk (though none appear to have actually been lost). The lack of success was hardly surprising considering the aircraft used and the limited training in this type of mission.

There is no denying that dive-bombers in the face of limited air defence offered a better weapons platform for 'precision' attacks and the failure to provide dedicated ground attack aircraft hampered the Allied forces in the first half of the war. The fact that squadrons of Cannon/bomb armed Hurricanes/Spitfires were the only aircraft available to support the ground forces during Dieppe raid in 1942, is a case in point. They suffered heavy losses to flak whilst providing little effect support. It is a fact that unprepared as they were, most parts of non-Axis world suffered painful lessons as they tried to catch-up and even the vaunted Red Army only survived to learn its lessons through trading land and at a terrible cost.

Imperfect though the Typoon may have been, to suggest that a dedicated ground attack aircraft would have been any less vunerable to flak is questionable. And in the absense of a fighter arm, by 1944/45 flak was the only reliable weapon available to the Germans.

Regards,

Steve