4 ms·
Bombing wasn't all that accurate back then. No GPS- or laser-guided ammunition was available yet. Missiles were quite experimental still and mostly used by figh
by samus 4y ago
Bombing wasn't all that accurate back then. No GPS- or laser-guided ammunition was available yet. Missiles were quite experimental still and mostly used by fighter-bombers. Night bombing adds its own difficulties. Also, both sides had to deal with enemy air defense that was quite state of the art, therefore they could rarely take their leisure time to target well.
- implements 4y agoI believe the CEP (Circular Error Probable - the area near the aiming point the bomb was likely to hit with a 50% probability) was something like 5 miles for night-time high-altitude bombing during WW2.
- fbdab103 4y agoA cursory search of WW2 airplanes, I am finding plenty of bombers that could operate at 500+mph (probably not when fully laden, but still). Targeting anything when going at that speed by little more than eye is still hugely impressive.
- jdsully 4y agoThey had a full blown analogue targeting computer. The Norden bombsight was revolutionary [1]. Sadly it was still not accurate enough to hit specific buildings reliably so it didn’t have the impact on the war its designers expected. 1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight
- hedgehog 4y agoThey had bomb sights of various complexities, the Norden being the best known US design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight Still very difficult.