The War: Ken Burns

[DREDger]

Last night was watching this PBS special and they were talking about B-17's.

The commentator said "All the B-17's were equiped with Norden bombsights..."

I thought only a couple of the lead B-17's had bombsights, the rest just followed and dropped when the lead plane(s) dropped.  Anyone know about that either way?

I heard that the bombsight was so secret it had a destruct mechanism, however with all the bomber losses, I wouldn't imagine every crew would be able to destroy the sight when shot down.

[Dago]

If only a couple had the bombsight, and those two got shot down, I guess the others would be screwed.

They all had them.

[Masherbrum]

Originally posted by Dago
If only a couple had the bombsight, and those two got shot down, I guess the others would be screwed.

They all had them.

yep

[DREDIOCK]

Originally posted by DREDger
Last night was watching this PBS special and they were talking about B-17's.

The commentator said "All the B-17's were equiped with Norden bombsights..."

I thought only a couple of the lead B-17's had bombsights, the rest just followed and dropped when the lead plane(s) dropped.  Anyone know about that either way?

I heard that the bombsight was so secret it had a destruct mechanism, however with all the bomber losses, I wouldn't imagine every crew would be able to destroy the sight when shot down.

True but I would imagine that not many of them survived intact the sudden stop after dropping 10-20 K LOL

[lazs2]

I thought it was going to be more about the war and not quite so much about how badly we treated negros and japs.

I lived in a section of los angeles in the fifties that was pretty much 50% or better former jap internment people and every summer we went to the south so I seen both.  

As a kid... I knew the jap neighbors had been in some kind of camp but that was all... you would never guess it by how they acted toward us.   All us kids played together and the parents all got along fine... The parents.. the former interned were hard working and loving and friendly and seemed to be very happy people.  Taught us stuff like carving soap and that kind of thing... only cub scouts to learn that paper folding thing I would recon.

They would laugh (giggle mostly) about how big us white kids were...  Good time growing up.

lazs

[63tb]

Did you hear the comment one of the men made about an attack on a German sub pen? He said they were told the norden was supposed to be so accurate it could hit a pickle barrel at 20000 feet. After the attack they found that they had missed the sub pen completely. So he said, "Hit a pickle barrel? We couldn't hit France!"

63tb

[Denholm]

Originally posted by DREDger
...I heard that the bombsight was so secret it had a destruct mechanism...

My Father once told me that the bombsight was made using Ladies Hair. Yes, hair from a female. He also told me that the crew inside of the B17 were told to shoot the bombsight (Particularly the region with the lady's hair) if their plane was hit and going down.

Naturally I don't think any evidence of the bombsight would remain after that long drop and the sudden stop, yet that's just what I was told.

[DREDger]

I don't think you could count on an airplane being shot down, then impact automatically destroying say, a bombsite.  There would be enough to salvage I would imagine for German engineers to start piecing it together.  

Plus on the way down, the body could break apart, separating the nose from the part of the plane that would burn (re; Pan Am flight over Scotland and nose section photograph;  the poor pilots who rode that baby all the way down)

I'm not sure I believe this 100% just yet.  If all the planes were independently dropping bombs based on their own calibration, why the stories of other planes dropping when the lead drops.

Also, even though this is a game. the drones drop when the lead plane drops.  Like one plane having the sight, the others dropping when the lead goes.

Don't know though, might be completely wrong.  Maybe they all had them.  Why would each plane have a bombadier otherwise..right?

Dredge

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

They all had the bombsight. The lead plane usually was supposed to have the best bombardier, and he was supposed to call the drop. Seeing how it was war, and the battle plan usually works well until the first shot is fired, it'd be stupid to have one or two planes carry the only bombsights, and the rest just hope to follow their lead.

There was a self destruct mechanism, and the bombardier was tasked with making sure that if the plane had to be abandoned or could otherwise fall into enemy hands that the bombsight was destroyed.

By the way, the Germans evidently managed to steal everything they needed to know in order to manufacture the Norden. At least according to a couple of sources.

[midnight Target]

Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
By the way, the Germans evidently managed to steal everything they needed to know in order to manufacture the Norden. At least according to a couple of sources.

I read that somewhere also. The secret was out very early in the war.

[MiloMorai]

Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
By the way, the Germans evidently managed to steal everything they needed to know in order to manufacture the Norden. At least according to a couple of sources.

The German Lofte bombsight was based on the Norden.

Herman W. Lang, a German spy, had been employed by the Carl L. Norden Company. During a visit to Germany in 1938, Lang conferred with German military authorities and reconstructed plans of the confidential materials from memory.

The British SAAB sight was just as good as the Norden.

Nice site on the Norden, http://www.twinbeech.com/norden_bombsight.htm