View Single Post
  #7  
Old April 5th 04, 09:09 AM
Dave Eadsforth
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article , Kari
Korpi writes
(Peter Stickney) wrote in news:i3nn4c-
:
In exactly the same manner as any other bombs dropped from a Mosquito
FB. The bombs don't care if they are coming from teh bomb bay or a
wing rack. Barring any airflow disturbances, it's all pretty much the
same. Aiming would, just like manual bombing in a fighter-bomber
today, be bt a combination of using the gunsight reticle and TLAR
(That Looks About Right) techniques.


Thanks for the info. For some reason, I've always thought that
bay-mounted bombs require level laydown bombing instead
of shallow dives and glide bombing, maybe due to the fact that
I'd thought that in a dive, the bombs would hit the forward
bulkhead without a bomb crutch

But that explains a lot, though: now I realise just how those
Mosquitos could do those anti-Gestapo low-level ops with such
accuracy. It must have taken a lot of testicular fortitude and
skill with the gunsight and ballistics, but there was no need
for a long, straight, wings-level ingress for a Norden bomb
run.


Putting the bombs into the side of a building would be one of the easier
tasks - just take a path over the building at a predetermined height and
release x yards from it. A bit of prior calculation and you could
choose which floor :-)

I have also read a biography where the navigator recalled that he would
choose a landmark one minute's flying time away from the target and then
count the pilot into the drop position.

And it might also have been possible to use the drift sight installed in
many Mosquitos for some bombing modes.

Cheers,

Dave

--
Dave Eadsforth