The guns on a bomber were never really meant for engaging aircraft. They&#x27;re meant to deter fighters from ever getting near the bomber. Not many pilots are willing to sit directly in the path of machine gun fire, even if it is not very accurate. German anti-aircraft figured this out as well. They switched to shooting mostly tracer rounds. You aren&#x27;t going to hit anything in the first place, so you might as well just scare the crap out of them.<p>There were some WWII &#x27;gunship&#x27; style modifications of planes, but that was not that common.<p>For a more modern comparison, consider that the Bradley fighting vehicle carries anti tank missiles. Sending a group of Bradleys directly against tanks would be suicidal. The Bradley has aluminum for armor. A well trained set of tank crews operating even WWII vintage vehicles would decimate them. Instead, the misiles are there to deter tanks from engaging them. It also provides the crew with an enormous psychological benefit. That benefit is they at least have the benefit of being able to respond to an enemy tank with a potentially lethal weapons system. Ironically of course the TOW missiles on the Bradley destroyed more Iraqi tanks the M1 tank ever did in the Gulf war. But that is because Iraqi tank crews either had no experience or had armored vehicles in horrible condition.