 History, datas and pictures of German and Japanese bomber planes of WW2.
Most of this bomber planes are used or will be used with the computer wargame WW2 Total.
The German Luftwaffe forces ranged against Poland on 1 September 1939 were divided into two air fleets. Aircraft strength was about 850 bombers and dive-bombers and 400 fighters. In the first two days of the campaign these forces completely destroyed the Polish Air Force. It had been a striking demonstration of air power. Aircrafts played also a vitale role in the invasion of Norway and Denmark. For the campaign in the West the Luftwaffe deployed 3,902 aircraft. So far, the air force had been used as a tactical weapon, creating air supremacy and providing support for the ground forces with bombers. In the summer and autumn of 1940, however, the lightly-armed bombers soon proved ill-defended against RAF fighters in the Battle of Britain. In October 1940 the bombers were forced to switch to the night bombing, which lasted until the spring of 1941. During the conquest of the Balkan, the invasion of Crete, the battles in North Africa and the attack on Russia, the German bombers were back to ground attack duties. Not before August 1943 the bombers were giving priority to strategic bombing of Russia and to support the Army to a minimum. Unfortunately, the Russian counter-offensive between the summer of 1943 and the spring of 1944 largely negated the strategic bombing of Russian targets. Then, in the summer of 1944, came the V-weapons programme together with the virtual exclusion of bombers. Only a few of the new jet bombers were later produced.
The Japanese aircraft industry built in 1941 a total of 1,461 bombers. The total almoust doubled in 1942, when 2,433 were built. In 1943 a total of 4,189 bombers came off the assembly lines. 1944 saw the total reach 5,100 bombers. And in the eight months of 1945 up to the surrender a total of 1,934 bombers were built. In the last year of WW2 in the Pacific, most bombers were assigned to suicide missions. A total of some 2,000 kamikaze pilots lost their lives for 35 American ships sunk and 288 more damaged.
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