Norden Bombsight but it will also include information about the other bombsights as well.

NORDEN BOMBSIGHT

This is the beginnings of a web site dedicated not only to the Norden Bombsight but it will also include information about the other bombsights as well.
The Norden bombsight is arguably one of the most important technological advancements to come out of WWII. Even though Carl Lucas Norden had built a prototype and was developing his bombsight well before, it was its use during WWII which made it famous. Even today people still marvel at the super secret Norden Bombsight. ​

 

Well,according to wiki,the Norden bombsight wasn't so supersecret. Herman Lang,a German spy who worked at the Norden plant,leaked the plans for the sight to the Abwehr in 1938.The Luftwaffe had a similar bombsight,the Carl Zeiss Lotfernrohr 7,also called the Lotfe 7,and it was simpler and easier to maintain than the Norden.

 

I saw that I think when it was at the old location and was impressed but I wouldn't know much about it myself except to know how significant it was in making air support so much more effective in what it enabled. I haven't been to that museum for a while and I am wanting to go there sometime soon.

 

I know that the RAF 617 Squadron used an improvised bombsight when they attacked the Mohne,Eder and Sorpe dams,and that the Doolittle Raiders used the "20 cent"bombsight when they bombed Japan. What other improvised bombsights were used?

 

Im not sure if it really takes the cake as most important sight, as the H2S and other radar aiming systems were used on almost all of the most important raids. Thing is, the importance of bombing was rather small, the real advantage to strategic bombing was that it lured the luftwaffe up to be destroyed.

 

View attachment 16985 (photo courtesy of "Remember and Honor")

I know this is a little of the topic of the subject line, but it is a question about a Norden bombsight. I was looking at some photos on Facebook of a B-17 and saw this and thought it was a Norden bombsight. The fellow that posted the pics didn't know for sure, so I am bringing the question to the experts here......

These planes (B-17, B-24 and a P-51) are coming to a couple of cities near me in the very near future, I am quite excited about it.

 

Here is a pic of one mounted in the nose of a B-17, they look quite similar, this one is just fully refurbished it seems.

 

I was able to recently visit the museum at its final location....(it moved a couple of times) and it was a slight improvement over the old although I do miss the very old helicopters that were once present at the original location. It remains a very impressive and unique thing to visit and see. There is augmentation of information here if you also visit the museums in Los Alamos for those that like more detail to the whole story. Clementine, I would think that that is a variation of what I saw at the museum but someone who is an authority will have to say so as it is from a different angle and shows an above view so I may not recall all the detail correctly....it doesn't seem exactly the same. Perhaps the Norden was different per type of airplane it was installed on? There is a variety of things to see relating to bombs as they also display some other items of nuclear interest. A B29 and a few other planes sit outside for viewing.

 

Very good informative film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtkpwiD2ZOE

 

Great Idea. There isn't enough written about how bomb sights worked. Be careful if your aim is to glorify the Norden site. The Sperry was juist as good and the RAF achieved better accuracy with SABS

Read this http://www.lancaster-archive.com/bc_maiorbombsights.htm

 

In the film 12 O'clock High they talk about switching part way into the war to bombing on the lead bomber. (Area bombing.)
That left me wondering if prior to that the box formation was discarded on the bomb run with the bombers in a precision line, making maximum use of the Norden bombsight.

Anyone? I've spent the day looking for early war USAAF bombing tactics to no avail.

 

Precision bombing was fine in theory and in places where there was good visibility from 25,000 to the ground. That was not always true over Europe. It also meant flying in a straight line in level flight with the flight on the bomb run controlled by the bombadier. This was potentially fatal with enemy fighters waiting to pounce on bombers that left the defensive box formation.

12 O Clock high was a feature film not a documentary

The bombers had to maintain the box formation

 

There may be some misunderstanding about bombing on lead. Rarely did an entire bomb group (at least in the 15th AF) bomb on the release of a single lead. The group formation would be divided - depending on time frame - into three or four sections (nominal squadron, but not exclusively) of 7 to 12 aircraft per section. Each section would have a lead and deputy lead aircraft and bombing would be done by section.

When H2X equipped PFF aircraft first appeared in the 15th, a single PFF aircraft might lead the entire group. As soon as more PFF aircraft became available, the first and third sections would be lead by PFF. Later, each section would have a PFF lead. Bombing was still done by visual means when possible and the PFF aircraft were useful for enroute navigation.

The formation used during attack was specified in the mission briefing documents and depended on the type of target. It was sometimes the same as the cruise formation and other times the sections would line up in trail from the IP to the target. See attached briefing sheet. On at least one occasion, an attack on a bridge in a lower threat environment, the sections broke into pairs in trail and bombing was done by pairs.

The Sperry bombsight was standard on the B-24H's that initially equipped most of the 15th AF groups.