"John Keeney" wrote in message
...



The recon flights were still made Art. Since the RAF were flying tight
formations
comparing the in-aircraft camera pictures with the after strike recon
photos was the only way of establishing individual accuracy

What was the point? If you are flying tight formation indivual planes
can't correct for drift. Were they not dropping when the lead did and
trying measure the single dimension?



Sorry I misstyped

I should have said the RAF were NOT flying tight formations

Basically the night attack formation was the bomber stream, no
attempt was made to fly in formation and each aircraft basically
navigated to the target and dropped on its own. It was rare
for one bomber to even see another much less formate on it.

Later in the war the target would be marked by Pathfinders
and aircraft would be instructed to bomb the markers laid
down by that force.

In daylight they tended to fly a looser formation than the
USAAF with aircraft flying a loose gaggle at staggered heights
and individual aircraft would drop on their own bombardiers
command.

Keith