World war two?

Question

During ww 2 when the RAF bombed germany they had a high percentage of aircraft shot down,but when the luftwaffe bombed britain their losses were mutch lower (on the raid on Coventry they only had 1 shot down) Why was this?

Answer 1

Our night fighting ability  was very poor,Got better later in the war.

Answer 2

They switched to night bombing as they were being slaughtered in day light raids, much harder to find and shoot them down at night . but once the British big wing strategy started they were shot down en masse

Answer 3

British bombers had to fly over occuppied countries without fighter support just to reach Germany, Gemans only had to fly over the channel.

Answer 4

Germans had superior AA guns and better fighter attacks

Answer 5

Seems most people fail to realize that the Germans had gained lots of practice in the Spanish Civil war.  By the time Great Britain had entered the war, the Germans had been honing their skills for years.  German radar was far better than English as was their gunning.

Answer 6

When the RAF bombed Germany they had to fly over a thousands kms of n**i held territories. They would meet different flights of fighters and be the target of the Flak guns all the way in and back. The Germans had a shorter route. As well, the RAF was fighting a desperate battle to survive at that time and did not have the same quantity of fighters to put in the air, especially at night which is when the Germans did a lot of their bombing runs.

Answer 7

Germany prepared for 7yrs and preparation is everything in early engagements and with a paranoid schizoid running Germany they lost a war that was well within their grasp and the early bombing bore this fact out that their leaders were impatient (thank god) by switching to the city's. Later on fighting a defensive war they were still a force to come up against as statistics point out and it's manly thanks to the Russians & Americans that ended Germany's hope otherwise who knows what language we would be speaking now...

Answer 8

First of all, the raid on Coventry was unopposed for strategic reasons, ie maintaining the Ultra secret.  The period of July-Oct of 1940, the Battle of Britain, the only sustained Luftwaffe bombing campaign on the Western Front resulted in a much lower casualty rate than the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive for several reasons.  First, the Luftwaffe was able to escort their bombers all the way to the targets.  The escort provided provided cover for the numerically superior attacking force thus reducing the casualty rate.  After the German's failure to gain air superiority, they switched to night bombing.  They held a technological advantage in night operations and radar early in the war.

The Allied CBO commenced shortly after that.  The British favored night mass bombing raids to the American daylight precision bombing.  Both tactics lacked the crucial fighter escort for missions deep into Germany.  The Allied forces suffered horrendous casualty rates until the introduction of the P-51 Mustang.  That fighter's long range allowed it to follow the American daylight bomber formations all the way to Berlin and back.  Goring is reported to have said that when he saw American fighters over Berlin he knew the war was lost.  The British continued to use the night mass bombing tactics but with a new twist.  They created a bomber stream over the target.  Instead of sending formations of bombers to all drop their bombs at once they sent individual ships at short intervals to create a constant stream of bombers.  They still suffered from no fighter escort until late in the war when the Mosquito and Beaufighter were retrofitted with aerial radar.  The Germans maintained an advantage in aerial radar sets throughout the war and their night fighters were quite effective.  

So to answer your question, the German campaign was of short duration and had adequate fighter escort.  The Allied campaign was a concerted strategic offensive deemed necessary to win the war and thus went on despite a very high casualty rate for a sustained period of years.

Answer 9

In 1940 a new strategic way of bombing took place with many aircraft having to head way down into Germany to Bomb. This caused more casualties due to aircraft flying such a long time, pilots getting tired and a strong will of the German anti-aircraft batteries on the ground.

Answer 10

The Germans had committed to intensive anti-aircraft defense and weapons development early on.  While the Luftwaffe focused on tactical aircraft for the support of ground operations, they were well aware that the British believed the main striking arm of the RAF would be Bomber Command.  British Air Defense, while fair, was simply not as densely-packed, nor as superbly equipped.  Moreover, British losses, once theu had switched to night operations, fell dramatically.  The American 8th Air Force then took over daylight bomber operations, and continued to pay a very heavy toll to the combination of excellent flak defenses and large number of very good German fighter aircraft.