Bomber stream

At the urging of British scientific military strategist R. V. Jones, Bomber Command reorganized their attacks into streams carefully positioned to fly right down the middle of a cell.

Minimizing the former demanded a densely packed stream, as the controllers of a night fighter flying a defensive 'box' could only direct a maximum of six potential interceptions per hour, and the flak gunners could not concentrate on all the available targets at once.

A typical bomber stream of 600 to 700 aircraft was on average 8 or 10 miles (13 or 16 km) broad, and 4,000 to 6,000 feet (1,200 to 1,800 m) deep.

[2] The bomber stream allowed a bombing raid to be completed in a shorter time, further overwhelming the defensive tactics of the German forces.

[3] The tactic proved successful and was used until the last days of the war, when centrally-organised German air defences had ceased to exist.