On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 at 16:36:22 in message
, Corky Scott
wrote:
The bombers were only in combat for a few minutes out of the 12 to 14
hours they were in the air, unlike in Europe where for a while anyway,
they were under threat of attack the moment they crossed the French
coast. I saw a chilling picture of an entire B-24 group head on to a
B-17 group. This was during form-up, and both groups passed without a
collision, but a number of bombers missed each other by mere feet.
Someone had gotten their coordinates wrong... Collisions under these
circumstances were considered non combat.

I have read that 1% aircraft were expected to be lost in collisions
over the target.
--
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