[ARC5] Watch out! Norden Bombsight rant incoming...

[Taigh Ramey]

Let me pre-apologize for the following rant:

 

I love the revisionist historians take on the lack of accuracy of the Norden
bomb sight in WWII. Yes the whole bombsight program was very expensive to
develop and put into service but what else was available at the time? 

 

The pre WWII bomb sighting systems were not far removed from what was
available in WWI which was very close to holding out your arm and using your
thumb. Accuracy depending on the state of your manicure. Really, take a look
at the sights in WWI and compare them to what was available going in to
WWII. Not much different. Wires with increments to sight across and drop
when the target crossed preset indices. Would the same sight for a wood and
linen 80 mph biplane bomber from WWI really work from the altitudes and
speeds of the newly developed bombers coming online in the late 1930's?

 

Coming up with an electro-mechanical computer that would take into
consideration all of the factors needed to calculate the point in space to
drop a specific type of bomb at the speeds, altitudes and conditions of a
brand new type of combat was quite the challenge in the 1930's don't you
think? Now try to get that mechanical computer to do that accurately at 40
degrees below to 150 above. 

 

Let's also figure out how to reproduce this computer, in the massive
quantities needed, that required more precision than some of the finest
watches of the time. 

 

It also turns out that the pilots flying the aircraft had trouble
maintaining the accuracy for a stable bombing platform so they needed to
come up with a full three axis autopilot to work with the bombsight to be
able to fly the aircraft on the bomb run. Let's pull one of those systems
off of the shelf in 1935. Sort of like going from a BC-375 to an ART-13
isn't it, but a wee bit more complex I suspect.

 

Then don't forget to make the bombing system simple enough so a kid fresh
from the farm in Kansas can figure it out since we are going to need tens of
thousands of bombardiers to man the aircraft that are coming out of the
factories one every hour. Let's also figure out how to train all of these
kids on a system and bombing problem that hasn't been thought that much
of...ever before...and get them through the new schools and off to combat.
It's okay if they weren't the best bombardiers as they wouldn't live that
long anyway.

 

Let's take it out on the Norden Bomb sight and blame it for being an
inefficient program and an ungodly expensive system. A waste of money and
time as that seems like the right place to point to for the bombs missing
the target. Crappy accuracy? Why was it that the German infrastructure and
war industry was brought to a screaming halt? Why was it that the aircraft
factories and other critical industries had to be moved underground or into
houses and spread around the country to protect them? Why was it critical
for the last German offensive in the bulge to capture the allies fuel
storage so they could keep moving? What was it that destroyed the airfields
and made the once mighty Luftwaffe a lot less of a concern?

 

May I offer that it was the British bombing by night and the precision
bombing by the U.S. by day that brought the German war effort to a halt on
the West and the lives of 5 plus millions of Russian soldiers that perished
in the East. I believe that it was precisely this bombing effort, the likes
of which had never been seen before, that made it a lot easier for the
allied ground forces to move across France and into Berlin from June 6, 1944
to May 8th, 1945

 

May I offer that we needed a whole lot better bombing system than anything
that was in play at the time. We needed a revolutionary new system on the
same order of importance as RADAR or the nuclear program. A system to solve
a complex problem that hadn't needed to be worked before.

 

May I offer that it did take out the strategic targets. It did take out the
airfields and oil industry. It did take out their war effort. It did work

 

May I offer that it might not have been the best for you looking at it
through today's eyes. It was the best that they had at the time and they
were proud even if you are not today. 

 

Rant over. Nothing to see here. Please move on...

 

Taigh Ramey

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