How Many Escorts Flew with Bombers?

[Rex]

I've been searching around, but I cannot find the answer for this ...

If there was a group of, say 16, B-17s going on a bombing mission, how many escorts were they usually accompanied by?

Was it typically 1:1 Fighters:Bombers, or did they go with 1 fighter for every 2 bombers, or something of that nature?

 

[Gunfreak]

It depended, on the mission, the early British circus things could have just 30 2 engine bombers while it was supported by up to 16 fighter squadrons(so way way more fighters than bombers) 

[Doughguy]

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1519680/target-berlin/

Quote

The USAAF returned two days later with 462 bombers escorted by 174 P-51s.

Formations were swamped by escorts. you usually had zig zaging mustangs flights at three different heights above the bombers.

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Doughguy

[Mogster]

Without more specifics, date, target, etc it’s impossible to answer.

[Yoda967]

Rex,

Mogster is absolutely right, because there wasn't a consistent "X-number-of-bombers = Y-number-of-fighters" rule. Build your missions how you like, unless you're recreating a specific mission. The number of escorts varied from zero to several "big wings", and as with today's mission planning, there were guidelines, but every mission was planned around specific objectives. The intent of the CIRCUS missions mentioned by Gunfreak was to tempt the Luftwaffe fighters to come up and fight by offering tempting bomber formations, so they'd be backed up by large numbers of "escorting" fighters. Think of them as fighter sweeps with bait.

Fighter escort planning for the POINTBLANK missions of '43 and early '44 served a dual purpose -- the escorts were not just there to protect the bombers from Luftwaffe interceptors, but also to destroy as many Luftwaffe aircraft as possible, laying the groundwork for the air supremacy deemed essential for the success of the eventual Allied invasion. 

Some of the medium bomber NOBALL missions (anti V-weapon) of early to mid '44 might have 12-18 bombers with 12-36 escorts, with the escorts released to perform a fighter sweep or armed recce at a pre-arranged point or after the bomber commander assessed the enemy fighter threat as particularly low. I recently read one RAF Spitfire squadron report of an escort mission with 12 fighters and 12 bombers, where the fighters were released as soon as the bombers completed their attack run, and on the trip home, the Spitfires strafed a number of enemy aircraft on the ground and shot up an E-boat near the Seine estuary.

In his book, "Wing Leader", Johnnie Johnson wrote that in the summer of '43, he and other RAF fighter wing commanders had discussed the idea of reducing the size of fighter formations then being sent across the channel, as they had all witnessed enemy aircraft avoiding combat when faced with formations of 100+ Allied fighters. Smaller numbers of fighters, he felt, would seem less imposing to the enemy, giving Allied fighters more opportunities to engage and shoot down enemy fighters.

That logic would apply to bomber escorts, as well, with the average number of escorts decreasing as the likelihood of encountering Luftwaffe fighters got smaller. There was a point when there were better uses for the fighters.

[DD_Fenrir]

From memory so this might be a little rusty...

 

RAF: 

1941-1942

To cover a bomber force of anywhere from 3-18 bombers

Close Cover Wing - 2-3 Squadrons, 24-36 aircraft - 1,000-3,000 ft above Bombers Formation

Escort Cover Wing - 2-3 Squadrons, 24-36 aircraft - 1,000-3,000 ft above Close Cover Wing

High Cover Wing - 2-3 Squadrons, 24-36 aircraft - 1,000-3,000 ft above Escort Cover Wing

Top Cover Wing - 2-3 Squadrons, 24-36 aircraft - 1,000-3,000 ft above High Cover Wing

Target Cover Wing - 2-3 Squadrons, 24-36 aircraft - flying direct to target timed to bombers ETA to provide reinforcements in case some of the other escorts were stripped away by enemy action

Withdrawal Cover Wing - 2-3 Squadrons, 24-36 aircraft - flying direct to target to pick up bomber formation on egress from target to provide reinforcements in case some of the other escorts were stripped away by enemy action

 

As can be seen this is a massive undertaking with a big show requiring up to 216 fighters, and given an airfield generally supported a whole individual wing, on a max effort at least 6 separate airfields were involved; this meant that nearly all the bases in Kent, Surrey and East Sussex would be required to sortie their Fighter Wings for a given mission.

 

1943-1945

With the Luftwaffe activity and opposition in France gradually becoming less fierce and the realisation in Fighter Command that these 'Circuses' were unwieldly, inefficient and unproductive, the Escort generally reduced to a single Wing of 2-3 squadrons, 24-36 aircraft, flying direct Bomber Escort in a more fluid arrangement that kind of congregated the Close Escort and High Cover elements, each of the Wing's squadrons being directed to cover different parts of the formation or altitude brackets at the Wing leaders behest. However there would still have been other Wings and squadrons tasked with Fighter Sweeps in the airspace surrounding to try and clear, distract or break up any German formations attempting to intercept the main raid.

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by DD_Fenrir

[DD_Fenrir]

To continue

 

USAAF: 

1944 - 1945

Each Bomber Task force was made up of a varying number of Divisions comprising 1-5 Combat Wings, each having 3 Groups and each group containing 4 squadrons (9-12 bombers). A full up effort could then consist of 2,880 bombers.

Generally however these were rarely all employed in one formation on a single target, there would generally be several task forces, each going to separate targets, with 576-1,440 bombers in each.

However, even these Task Forces did not fly in one massive formation; the bomber divisions (each of about ~600 aircraft) tended to to congregate in loose trail formations of Wings. As you can imagine this made for very long streams of bomber formations.

The only way to cover these was for the VIII Fighter Command Groups (each of three squadrons, totalling 36-48 aircraft) to be assigned to particular Wings or Divisions, in that case you are escorting a particular section of the bomber stream. The Fighter Group Commander would then array each of his 3 squadrons around his allotted section of the bomber stream as he saw fit.

Even then because of the long distances involved a relay system was formed where, depending on your assignment, you might only be providing close escort for say an hour; after that a new Fighter Group relieves your section and you, as a Group CO, now have carte blanche to use the remaining fuel and or ammo in the aircraft of your Group on any target of opportunity in the air on the ground as you see fit. You might have a pre-briefed plan that lets the squadrons separate and fan out to go free-hunting. You may have pre-assigned areas to patrol as a group or each squadron may have reserved areas to go find stuff to destroy. Or you may be assigned to strafe a particular airfield near your escort route.

But I digress.

If you are replicating an escorted B-17 raid in DCS the minimum numbers to look authentic would be a 3 squadron Group of P-51s/P-47s; by mid 1944 these Groups had so many planes and plots they could become two understrength groups (each squadron posting two formations, an A Formation and a B Formation, each of 8-12 aircraft rather than a single formation of 16 aircraft), so posting 36 escorts for each leg is authentic. As for the amount of B-17s visible in the airspace, well....

I would say the minimum would be a 36 bomber Group; 2 or 3 would look better but there would obviously be performance ramifications for that number.

See page 108 in the linked document:

Print 467715- .TIF (333 pages) (ibiblio.org)

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by DD_Fenrir

[Rex]

Wow, thank you very much for all of the excellent info!  This was very educational.