What You Need to Know: During WWII, five bombers stood out for their strategic impact: the American B-29 Superfortress, famed for firebombing Tokyo and delivering atomic bombs that ended the war; Britain’s Avro Lancaster, known for its heavy payload and effectiveness in decimating Nazi Germany’s infrastructure; Japan’s Mitsubishi G4M "Betty," a versatile medium and torpedo bomber with notable strikes on the British Navy; Nazi Germany’s prolific Junkers Ju 88, which saw heavy action in the Battle of Britain; and Italy’s Savoia-Marchetti SM.79, an effective Mediterranean torpedo bomber that proved formidable against Allied ships. Each left an indelible mark on WWII aerial warfare.
These admittedly highly subjective five Best Lists are virtually guaranteed to generate controversy, as no matter how much you justify your opinions with solid objective facts, some military history buff out is still going to feel miffed because their favorite warplane/warship/firearm/tank/helicopter/whatever was omitted from the list.
That said, “Once more unto the breach, dear comrades,” as I opine on the five Best Bombers of World War II. To be more specific and help narrow things down further, I’m going to focus specifically on multi-engine bombers, as single-engine bombers such as dive bombers merit their own separate, standalone article shortly.
Might as well start at the end, i.e. the bomber that brought WWII to an end! The b-29 did so, of course, via the atomic bombs "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by B-29s "Enola Gay" and "Bockscar" on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively, thereby goading Imperial Japan into surrendering and thus finally ending the Second World War.
But even before the A-bombs, the “Superfort” was already making history by inflicting sheer destruction upon the heart of industrial Japan by more conventional bombing raids (masterminded by the late great U.S. Air Force (USAF) and U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) Gen. Curtis E. LeMay). For example, during Operation Meetinghouse on March ninth through the tenth 1945, 324 B-29s firebombed Tokyo in what would become the most destructive air raid in history, yes, that’s right, an even higher death toll than either of the A-bomb raids.
It ended with at least 90,000 persons killed, one million left homeless, and 267,171 buildings destroyed.
Arguably the most revered bomber in the prestigious history of Great Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF), the BAE Systems info page goes so far as to call the warbird “The most iconic heavy bomber of World War II.” She made her maiden flight on January 9, 1941 and was officially introduced into operational service with the RAF in February 1942.
The Lancaster carried out the lion’s share of the British portion of the Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) that ended up laying waste to the cities of Nazi Germany. She carried a much heavier bomb load than the B-17 Flying Fortress or the B-24 Liberator while operating at similar speeds and a slightly longer range.
Bearing in mind former U.S. Secretary of Defense, and former U.S. Marine Corps Commandant, Jim Mattis’s sobering reminder that, “The enemy gets a vote,” it must be remembered that although the Axis eventually lost WWII, they still produced their fair share of top-notch bombers.
Accordingly, one can make a reasonable case for the twin-engine “Betty” as Japan’s best of the bunch. Used as both a higher-altitude medium bomber and as a torpedo bomber, it was in the latter role that the so-called Hamaki performed best, sinking the pride of Britain’s Royal Navy, i.e. the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse with four torpedo hits apiece, in exchange for the loss of only two Hamakis and one Mitsubishi G3M Type 96.
Sir Winston Churchill said of this event, “In all the war, I never received a more direct shock.”
Tough choice between the Ju 88 and the Heinkel He 111 as to which was the Third Reich’s best bomber; however, going by the saying that, “Quantity has a quality all its own,” the nod would have to go to the Junkers warbird.
The twin-engine Ju 88 ended up as the second-most produced bomber of all time, with 15,183 airframes built; these numbers were only exceeded by America’s Consolidated B-24 Liberator four-engine heavy bomber, with 18, 482 specimens made.
This Luftwaffe bomber made her maiden flight on December 21, 1936 and officially entered into operational service with the Vaterland in 1939, which was perfect timing for the commencement of WWII. The Ju 88 did indeed manage to participate in the first official battle of the Second World War, that being the September 1939 blitzkrieg invasion of Poland, though they made a negligible impact on that particular mission.
The ‘88s made a much bigger contribution during the Battle of France (May-June 1940).
Of course, it was during the Battle of Britain that the Ju 88 garnered its biggest claim to fame. That fame, however, came at a terrible price: between July and October 1940, 303 of the ‘88s went down in flames, thus constituting a 15.3 percent chunk of the 1,977 total Luftwaffe aircraft losses for the ill-fated campaign.
The quality of Italian fighting machines tends to get overlooked, as Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italy was the first Axis power to capitulate, which in turn led to the prevailing popular misconception that Italian troops were cowards.
So then, it’s not surprising that the three-engine Sparviero, though arguably the most famous Italian airplane in WWII on the one hand, is the least well-known warbird on this list comparatively speaking, which is a damn shame, as it was an excellent medium bomber and torpedo bomber. Making her maiden flight on September 28, 1934, she was well-liked by its crews, who nicknamed her il gobbo maledetto due to the distinctive dorsal "hump" of the fuselage.
As noted by Aaron Spray of Simple Flying, “Commando Supremo claims it is considered one of the most lethal Italian aircraft of the war and successfully damaged and sunk dozens of Allied ships in the Mediterranean Sea and was one of the finest land-based torpedo bombers of the war…While U-boats inflicted the greater damage to the Royal Navy, SM.79s are credited with sinking the destroyers HMS Fearless, HMS Bedouin, and HMAS Nestor, an Australian destroyer. They also damaged Royal Navy cruisers and the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable in July 1943, just before Italy exited the war.”
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ). He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch , The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS).
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