Comments by "Digital Nomad" (@digitalnomad9985) on "Which Country had the Most Effective Bomber Planes in World War 2" video.

@tonyhaley3745 "ran from 4 foot peasants". You don't know much about the Vietnam war, do you? We won every battle we fought. We wiped out the VC (outcome of the "Tet Offensive"), and got a negotiated settlement with North Vietnam after bombing the crap out of them. Then we lost because a Democrat Congress refused to honor our material support treaty with South Vietnam, so Nixon's winning the war wouldn't offset Watergate. That's not the way that it's told, but that's the way it happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hqYGHZCJwk
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@donlove3741 "By 1960 no US Planes carried .50s." V-J day was in 1945, and 1960 was well into the jet era. "What were the loss rates.for B17s all.equipped with .50? Over 35% just in Europe." And they dropped to next to nothing when they were escorted by .50 cal armed Mustangs. The lesson is that sending unescorted bombers deep into a air defense network of fighters and AA in daylight was costly. The Lancasters didn't even try it. The one time the UK considered adding strategic daytime bombing to its campaign, they were going to do it with purchased B17s. None of the data you are citing supports your assertion that the .50 was ineffective during the decisive part of the war.
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@donlove3741 The Germans and Japanese lost, especially in the air. By the jet era, the 50 cal was obsolete for air-to-air, but not so at WW2 ranges and speeds. The US didn't bother replacing it because it was thought that GUNS were obsolete for air-to-air. The first F-4 fighters shipped without guns.
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@donlove3741 Yes, that is odd. Except for the non-US planes not having US made weapons. In the sense of extraordinary, unusual. The P61 was an odd duck, a night fighter which saw action near the end of the war. The vast majority of WW2 US fighters produced flew with an arsenal of multiple spinal 50s. As for the postwar era, that is synonymous with the jet era, at least as fighters are concerned. Some of the WW2 fighters, notably the Mustang, saw use up to the Korean War as close support aircraft, but that was not a fighter role.
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