So, heavy monsters carrying tons of bombs over great distances. Yes, they are. Four-engine colossus, bristling with barrels, with large crews, armored and in general - the beauty and pride of any aviation.
Not all countries were able to create such an aircraft. The French, for example. They had a very, very decent project from "Breguet" Br.482 and even assembled copies of "Bloch" MV.162, but they did not go further than one or two copies. Alas, the "Breguet" bomber looked very respectable.
Therefore, we will consider those aircraft that actually fought on the fronts of World War II. It doesn't matter with what success, but they fought.
1. Heinkel He.177 "Greif". Germany, 1939
I don’t know how to properly relate to the conclusions of home-grown experts who call the "Griffin" a failure. And it does not matter at all, the failure of Heinkel, the Ministry of Aviation, Goering, Hitler … The main thing is failure.
Meanwhile, the "failure" was released in more than 1000 units, fought, and in fact the plane was wonderful. In general, in it the Heinkel gang managed to implement absolutely all the technical innovations of that time, so for peaceful purposes, their energy …
But no ingenious design solutions will help if the aviation circles themselves are bogged down in undercover games. Well, the fact that long-range / strategic aviation turned out to be an unbearable burden for the German industry … So it was in the USSR that they could not produce more than a hundred Pe-8 for various reasons.
And what was so unusual about the Griffin?
Twin propulsion system. Yes, at the beginning I said that today we will talk about four-engine heavy bombers. I didn't lie, the He-177 had four engines. More precisely, two 12-cylinder V-shaped units, created on the basis of the DB 601, were mounted side by side and worked on a common shaft through a gearbox connecting both crankshafts. And it was called DB 606.
Remote control of small arms, which had significantly less aerodynamic drag compared to manually guided turrets. Very helpful.
The No.177 was considered a dangerous and underdeveloped aircraft due to engine problems, but the pilots from the specially created "Test Squadron 177" had a different opinion. They received the bomber, which was pleasant to fly, very well.
He 177A-3 / R3 became the first carrier of a guided weapon - the Henschel Hs 293 guided bomb. He could carry three such bombs, two under the consoles and one under the fuselage. By the way, it was the "Griffins" that successfully worked on the Italian ships by UABs.
2. Piaggio P.108B / A. Italy, 1939
You can't forbid living beautifully, even in such a frankly poor country like Italy. In general, it is difficult to say why they need heavy bombers. But - for the prestige of Duce Mussolini wanted to have at least one air group, and there, you see, it will come in handy …
Projects were developed in several forms, it even came to the point that they wanted to build an American B-17 under license, but it did not happen. But in the end, a more or less intelligible heavy bomber turned out to be from the Piaggio firm. Although - well, very similar to the B-17 …
Despite the obvious borrowing of individual parts, the Italian "flying fortress" turned out to be more difficult to control and the flight characteristics were much worse. In general, it was a fairly modern aircraft, made using advanced technology.
In general, the Italians looked at the use of the FW-200 "Condor" by the Germans as patrol and anti-submarine aircraft. There was a reason, no one canceled the eternal rival France, and in the Mediterranean and the British sat as at home.
Hot Italian guys were going to hang three torpedoes from the plane. One in the bomb bay, and two on the outside. The unit received a big name (and how else in that Italy) "Knights of the Ocean", and the son of the Duce, Bruno Mussolini, became the commander.
True, Bruno did not command the Knights for long. When the hydraulic system failed on one of the training flights, the plane crashed and Mussolini Jr. died.
The catastrophe and death of Duce's son severely undermined the credibility of the new bomber. The release of Р.108В, which was already going neither wobbly nor roll, slowed down even more. But some of the equipment was replaced by a more reliable German one.
The R.108V bomber remained in service with the Italian Air Force until Italy's withdrawal from the war, and its transport version served in the Luftwaffe until the surrender of Germany. But the aircraft's combat career cannot be called successful, it was used quite sporadically and without the special zeal of the Italian pilots.
In general, the R.108V can be called a completely modern aircraft, but it was not brought to mind because of the war. Unreliable engines and equipment, very mediocre and heavy handling
Italy was not able to maintain a large strategic aviation, and the few sorties of the only squadron P.108B could not have any effect on the course of hostilities, of course.
But you can just put a "tick": the Italians were able to create and serially build a heavy long-range bomber.
3. Petlyakov Pe-8. USSR, 1941
We just recently talked about the Pe-8, all that remains is to make a short double. It was a very good car, with a twist. Its only drawback was the eternal leapfrog with engines and a small number of aircraft produced.
In principle, there were no targets for the Pe-8. The bomber could not work in the front-line zone, since on the one hand, there was someone to do it, on the other hand, the bombing of point objects from a great height did not make sense at all.
As a result, the actual targeted use of the Pe-8 by single sorties did not play any role in the war. But - as a "goal of prestige" completely.
It seems to me that the Pe-8 has brought great benefits, transporting crews for ferrying aircraft to the UK.
4. Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress". USA, 1936
"Flying fortress". What else can you add? Indeed, a fortress. Indeed, flying. The B-17's only problem throughout its service was its vulnerability to frontal attacks.
The aircraft was created as a land bomber focused on ship operations. That is, capable of inflicting damage on a ship of any class, including the largest ones.
The Flying Fortress immediately became a legend due to its ability to return to the airfield even with significant damage. Indeed, strength and reliability have become the hallmark of the B-17. Cases were recorded when the "Fortresses" crushed by German fighters crawled on two (at best) engines out of four. And it happened that on one.
The B-17s entered the war in 1941 with the Royal Air Force. And they were engaged in daytime bombing of German factories.
Fortresses dropped 650 195 tons of bombs in Europe alone. For comparison, the B-24 dropped 451,690 tons, and all other American aircraft dropped another 420,500 tons.
Accordingly, the Germans beat the "Fortresses" so that only the duralumin flew in shreds. Only the recognized losses of the US Air Force amounted to 4,752 B-17 units, which is actually a third of the total.
Only on October 14, 1943, on "Black Thursday", German fighters and air defenses shot down 59 of the 291 aircraft that attacked factories in Germany. Another "Fortress" sank in the English Channel, 5 crashed in England and 12 were decommissioned due to combat or landing damage. A total of 77 cars were lost. 122 bombers were finished in such a way that they needed a major overhaul. Only 33 B-17s returned unharmed.
Decent plane. He went through the whole war, and passed with dignity.
5. Consolidated B-24 "Liberator"
The story began in 1939, when the US Air Force began to figure out how the B-17 would be changed. The result was a slightly smaller aircraft, but with a greater flight range and speed.
The Liberators, like the Fortresses, began to fight in Britain. Moreover, they were even armed as British aircraft, that is, the armament of the B-24 consisted of six 7, 69-mm machine guns: two in the tail, one in the nose, one at both side points and one in the hatch below.
Not enough, if in my opinion. "Browning" 12, 7-mm - this is still more confident units.
The British began to massively convert the B-24 into anti-submarine aircraft, the guys of Doenitz have already really begun to get the empire with their "wolf packs".
A container with 20-mm cannons was placed under the front of the fuselage, radar stations were installed on the vehicles, the antennas of which were mounted in the nose and on the wings, and the suspension in the bomb bay of depth charges was provided.
But for the most part, the B-24 was engaged in the same thing as the B-17. That is, he carried tons of bombs and dumped them on German cities. Well, or to the islands occupied by the Japanese.
However, the pilots of the German and Japanese fighters quickly discovered that the Liberator, like the Fortress, was completely unprotected from frontal attacks. And if the Germans with frontal ones were so-so, then the Japanese began to shoot down the B-24 so that they had to rearm the plane.
It didn't help much, really. Although two more 12, 7-mm machine guns were installed, firing forward, they had very large dead zones.
But nevertheless, it turned out to be impossible to stop the States, which took a run in the production of aircraft. And upgrades followed one after another, and the number of four-engine monsters was simply overwhelming.
And here there is such a nuance: it was the release of a huge number of long-range heavy bombers, which were later replaced by strategic bombers, that a new US military doctrine was born.
In general, the B-24, like its predecessor, went through the entire war on all fronts, where aviation from both the United States and Great Britain took part.
6. Handley Page "Halifax". Great Britain, 1941
Halifax, although late for the start of the war, nevertheless plowed it up until the very last day. Moreover, not only in the Royal Air Force. The bomber was in service with the Air Forces of Australia, New Zealand, Canada.
The Halifaxes very timely replaced the Stirlings, which were clearly targets for German fighters and in fact could not oppose them with anything.
The Halifaxes made their first raid on the night of March 11-12, 1941, to the French port of Le Havre, captured by the Germans. It was a debut, followed by many other operations, the essence of which was the classic bombing.
During their service in the RAF, the Halifaxes made 82,773 sorties and dropped 224,000 tons of bombs.
A total of 6178 Halifaxes of various modifications were built; the losses amounted to 1833 aircraft.
In general, the Halifax turned out to be a very good multipurpose aircraft. He fought anti-submarine submarines, towed gliders, dropped cargo to partisans in Yugoslavia and Poland, and landed troops.
And this is one of the few aircraft whose career continued after the war as a cargo and passenger aircraft.
7. Avro "Lancaster". Great Britain, 1941
Here British engineers can exclaim: “We are not on purpose! It happened so!"
Indeed, "Lancaster" emerged from the project of a medium bomber and was definitely the most very British bomber.
Its development began when the war had been going on in Europe for three months, but by the time the war ended, about 7300 Lancasters had already been built. Moreover, they were used so intensively that about half (3345) were officially lost when performing combat assignments.
Lancaster dropped over 600,000 tons of bombs on the enemy. It is not surprising that the losses are corresponding. In general, for the second half of the war, defensive armament was frankly weak. It is understandable why British Air Command switched to night flights. Fighting with rifle-caliber machine guns against armored German fighters became more and more difficult every year.
And Lancaster appeared as a compromise. On the one hand, the Avro Manchester project was rejected. Therefore, in the design of the "four-engine" Manchester "elements of the serial" Manchester "were used in full. Tails, stabilizer washers, nose (FN5) and tail (FN4A) Fraser-Nash turrets and much more.
Lancaster was built in large numbers, but existed in only four production variants: two basic and two less important.
This is a very sensible approach in a war. The same aircraft was produced, the improvement of characteristics occurred only through the modernization of the Merlin engine.
From mid-1942 until the end of the war, the Lancaster was the main weapon of the Bomber Command. On his account, the destruction of the Ruhr enterprises, including the ever-memorable operation to destroy dams. And it was the "Lancaster" who eventually finished off the "Tirpitz" and thereby saved the Admiralty from the problem of replacing diapers. Finally, Britain was once again able to calmly "rule" the seas.
Most of the Lancaster survivors of the war were scrapped, but a small part was sold to other countries and used as civilian aircraft.
French "Lancaster" served in North Africa until 1961, and in the South Pacific, in Noumea, until 1964.
They really were in some way the highest point in the development of bomber aviation, then the time came for jet bombers, but these aircraft were exactly what they were: a symbol of the total destruction of everything on earth.
