In article , Peter Stickney
writes
I'll take a look. (Haven't checked in a while) There's loose, and
then there's loose, too. The RAF idea of a heavy bomber formation was
apparantly loose enough to allow that Corkscrew manaeuver that they
used at night. That would have to be very loose.

The original daylight air fighting tests for the Lanc (late '42 or early
'43) were based on three ship formations. Possibly a 'Vic' or line
abreast. The two outer ships were to corkscrew in opposite directions,
and the central one was to porpoise in sequence with them.

Apparently the manoeuvre gave the bomber gunners good shots and very
poor deflection shots for the attacking fighter.

A look at some photos of Lancs operating in daylight shows predominantly
long, thin formations basically made up of vics that overlap slightly
(rough plan view below; lead on left):

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{ { { { {
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--
John