Was high-altitude naval bombing ever effective in World War II?
Upvote:-3
And let us not forget that, in naval warfare, a near miss by a dive bomber could inflict significant damage. It was not an unusual event for a large bomb or shell going off say five feet from an enemy ship could buckle plates and cause serious problems.
Upvote:3
Japanese destroyer Mutsuki was sunk by a bomb hit from a group of B-17s. Since Mutsuki was stationary and engaged in rescue operations even that may not really count.
Upvote:6
Dive bombing and skip bombing were some of the few ways to accurately deliver a bomb in WWII. High altitude bombing in WWII was extraordinarily inaccurate, and a relatively small, maneuvering target like a navy ship was almost impossible to hit. High level bombers even found it hard to hit a large stationary ship like the Tirpitz.
Guided bombs made high level bombing of a maneuvering ship feasible in WWII. The German Fritz X guided bomb had a minimum launch height of 4km and had several successes against maneuvering capital ships. Fritz X bombs sunk the Italian battleship Roma and severely damaged Italia (formerly Littorio) following the Italian surrender. HMS Warspite was crippled by a Fritz X at Salerno. Afterwards, Allied jamming and air dominance rendered the Fritz X moot.
Upvote:13
Very rarely
In attacking shipping, the problems of inaccuracy were amplified by the fact that the target could be moving, and could change its direction between the time that the bombs were released and the time that they arrived. Successful strikes on marine vessels by horizontal bombers were extremely rare. An example of this problem can be seen in the attempts to attack the Japanese carriers using B-17s at altitude early in the Battle of Midway, with no hits were scored. The German battleship Tirpitz was subjected to countless attacks, many while in dock and immobile, but wasn't sunk until the British brought in special, enormous 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) Tallboy bombs to ensure that even a near miss would do the trick.
The US defined the target area as being a 1,000 ft (300 m) radius circle around the target point - for the majority of USAAF attacks only about 20% of the bombs dropped struck in this area. The U.S. daytime bombing raids were more effective in reducing German defences by engaging the German Luftwaffe than destruction of the means of aircraft production.
In the summer of 1944, forty-seven B-29's raided Japan's Yawata Steel Works from bases in China; only one plane actually hit the target area, and only with one of its bombs. This single 500 lb (230 kg) general purpose bomb represented one quarter of one percent of the 376 bombs dropped over Yawata on that mission. It took 108 B-17 bombers, crewed by 1,080 airmen, dropping 648 bombs to guarantee a 96 percent chance of getting just two hits inside a 400 x 500 ft (150 m) German power-generation plant.
On 12 November 1944, RAF Bomber Command dispatched 30 Avro Lancaster heavy bombers ... to Tirpitz's mooring in Tromsø, Norway. Each bomber carried a single 5-ton Tallboy bomb.
At least two bombs hit Tirpitz, which suffered a violent internal explosion. The battleship capsized and remained bottom upwards.
This was indeed "high altitude" bombing (5km, see comment, thanks!)
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