Luftwaffe gun camera footage

[McIvan]

The other factor to take into account is that the Lancasters typically carried three times the weight of bombs that a B17 did, so its also a ruthless tradeoff of bomb tonnage vs losses.

Losses may be partially explained by the fact that bomber command was at it longer than the USAAF, but for sure it was a torrid battle up there in the night skies. Have read some interesting books from Brit pilots flying night-fighters....the dominant factor is that the victim never sees its killer. When you think about how many day aircraft never saw the executor getting onto their tail, it makes sense. So I'm not at all sure that extra gunners would have made much diff.

What might have been useful was one of the radar detectors that the Germans developed....set off an alarm when the plane was being painted by radar from behind. I'm not sure if the Allies ever developed anything like that.