[ARC5] Fw: [Milsurplus] Norden Bombsight rant

[Joe Connor]

Let me try this again. I got a failure notice. 
Joe Connor

     On Tuesday, December 8, 2015 5:21 PM, Joe Connor <joeconnor53 at yahoo.com> wrote:
 
 

 You have to examine the Norden bombsight in light of the political battle going on in military circles. After World War I, no one wanted to endure that kind of slaughter again. The air-power advocates argued that they could bring an enemy to its knees solely through strategic bombing. In other words, they could destroy both the enemy's will to wage war and its ability to do so. Ground troops, they argued, would be limited to mopping up and occupying territory. The goals of this PR campaign were more money for the Air Corps, greater prestige and power for the airmen, and the creation of an independent air force. The traditional Army guys believed that this was a pipe dream.
As for the accuracy of the Norden bombsight, the tests on which the PR campaign were based were conducted in level flight, with no fighter attacks and no flak. In other words, the conditions were about as far removed as possible from what the bombers would encounter in the skies over Europe.
Before the war, the air-power advocates also overestimated the effectiveness of the B-17. They were so convinced that it was faster than any enemy plane that they didn't even put tail guns in the early models. Maybe they were that fast in the late '30s, but by the time we got into the war, German and Japanese fighters were much faster. They were also so convinced that B-17s were more than able to defend themselves that they didn't develop long-range escorts that could accompany the bombers from England to Germany and back.
Finally, before the war, the air-power planners believed flak would be nothing more than an annoyance. They were certainly wrong on that. Bombers had to fly straight and level, with no evasive maneuvers, from the IP (Initial Point) to the target, and they were sitting ducks for German flak. Undoubtedly, the flak affected bombing accuracy.
If you get a chance, watch "12 O'Clock High" again. It was written by Eighth Air Force veterans and is considered pretty accurate. I can't even begin to comprehend the kind of guts it took to fly 25 or 30 missions over Europe.
            Joe Connor