World War II Bombers

World War II Aircraft Bombers

World War II Aircraft Bombers Handbook

The Handbook of aircraft of WWII includes all the aircraft used by those countries which were at war during WWII from the period between their joining the conflict and the conflict ending for them.

A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, firing torpedoes at them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.

With engine power as a major limitation, combined with the desire for accuracy and other operational factors, bomber designs tended to be tailored to specific roles. By the start of the war this included:

dive - specially strengthened for vertical diving attacks for greater accuracy.

light, medium and heavy - subjective definitions based on size.

torpedo - specialized aircraft armed with torpedoes.

ground attack aircraft - used against targets on a battlefield such as troop or tank concentrations. A further specialized form was the anti-tank aircraft.

night - specially equipped to operate at night when opposing defences are limited.

maritime patrol - long range bombers that were used against enemy shipping, particularly submarines.

Bombers are not intended to attack other aircraft although most were fitted with defensive weapons. WWII saw the beginning of the widespread use of high speed bombers which dispensed with defensive weapons to be able to attain higher speed, such as with the de Havilland Mosquito..

Some smaller designs have been used as the basis for night fighters, and a number of fighters, such as the Hawker Hurricane were used as ground attack aircraft, replacing earlier conventional light bombers that proved unable to defend themselves while carrying a useful bombload.

Handbook including:

Aero A.100,

Aero A.304,

Blackburn Ripon,

Blackburn Shark,

Breda Ba.64,

Breda Ba.65,

Breguet 19,

Curtiss A-12,

Fairey Battle,

Fairey Fox,

Fairey Gordon,

Fairey III,

Fokker C.V,

Fokker C.X,

Hawker Hart,

Hawker Hind,

Hawker Horsley,

Heinkel He 45,

Heinkel He 50,

Henschel Hs 123,

Henschel Hs 129,

Ilyushin Il-2,

Ilyushin Il-10,

Junkers Ju 87,

Kawasaki Ki-32,

Letov Š-16,

Mitsubishi Ki-30,

Mitsubishi Ki-51,

A-36 Apache,

Northrop A-17,

Polikarpov Po-2,

Polikarpov R-5,

Potez 25,

PZL.23 Karaś,

Reggiane Re.2002,

Rogožarski R-100,

SM.85,

Vildebeest,

Wellesley,

Vultee A-31,

Vultee V-11,

Yakovlev Yak-4,

Aichi B7A,

Aichi D1A,

Aichi D3A,

B-24 Skua,

Brewster SB2A,

TBY Sea Wolf,

Curtiss SB2C,

SBC Helldiver,

Douglas SBD,

TBD Devastator,

Fairey Albacore,

Fairey Barracuda,

Grumman TBF,

Mitsubishi B5M,

Nakajima B5N,

Nakajima B6N,

Yokosuka B4Y,

Yokosuka D4Y