The point I was trying to make was that we flew missions with dumb bombs
that
were sometimes as accurate as missions flown today with smart bombs.

Were there *some* missions flown where *some* aircraft hit within 10 meters ?
Sure, but the laws of physics and bomb construction (particularly in the
1940's) mean that those strikes were as much about luck as the skill of the
aircrew. Even today, a gravity bomb hit within 30 feet is luck. Most honest
radar navs (or WSOs in the B-1B or Mission Commanders in the B-2) will tell you
they can get you down to 100 feet with skill, the rest is all luck. The mil
dispersion on a Mk-82 is .0025 (Did I get that right ??) which means for every
foot it travels, it'll move away from its "true trajectory" by 1/40 inch. If
your release distance is 35,000 feet, no matter how well you aim, your weapons
will tend to "wonder" by 87.5 feet (35,000 x .0025). So why is it possible to
"shack" a target with unguided weapons? Compensating errors. The RN aims 87.5
feet left and the drift tendancy (mil dispersion) of a majority of the weapons
is right. So...in summary, any strike you guys had in WWII that were inside of
10 meters, was luck.


How many planes in how tight a formation?

2 jets typically, but during OAF, I was in a formation as large as 6 jets.
Formation spacing varies, but has no impact since each aircraft (if both are
striking the same target) independantly targets its weapons. In the case of
Batajanica, all you see are my weapons, my lead aircraft hit the second runway
which you can almost see in the upper left hand part of the imagery.

Looks a bit loose. What was the intervelometer interval?

Loose? Hmm, thats 45 weapons, the interval was set to the min (.050) with the
externals timed to drop simultaneously. IIRC, it was a 700' train. That's about
as tight as it gets with 45 weapons. You can drop in RAPID mode and reduce your
train in about a half to a third, but this is not a common practice.

I note that there was a hole in
the bomb pattern that left one bullding standing Someone out of formation or
a
delay in a release?

Mil dispersion saves a single building. Chances are, anyone in it has white
hair and is deaf.


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"