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Originally Posted by canadiancitizen  A simple question, but with, I think, a complicated answer.
My opinion? It was a matter of a lack of well trained USAAF navigators, plus a doctrine that sacrificed bomb load, for defensive firepower, and the comfort of that flying block of planes.
On the other side, the RAF and the RCAF flew both day and night, and at night the individual aircraft HAD to have a well trained navigator, who could get to the target AND back home, in the dark, without a "lead navigator " that everyone else followed like sheep.
Of course as I tell people at the air shows, "the Yanks flew during the day so they could find England before it got dark ".
OK serious discussion . Why didn't the USAAF bomb at night, in your opinion ?
Jim Bunting. Toronto. |
Your assertation that navigators alone got the plane to the target and back is not entirely accurate, as the British developed a large number of navigational aids thoroughout the war, such as Gee, Oboe & H2S in respone to atrocious target locating & bombing accuracy in the early years of the war. As late as Aug 1941, less than 1 in 4 bombers got within five miles of the target. This number is for aircraft that actually attacked the target. Only one in three actually made it to the target area, with the numbers for the Ruhr being 1 in 10. (
Brute Force, Ellis, pg 171). So what you have is 25% of 33%, which is 8.25% of dispatched aircraft actually hitting the "target", which at that time was anything with in a 5 mile
radius of the target (78 sq mi). If you factor in 33% of 10%, then then you are looking at 3.3% of dispatched aircraft actually bombing the target area (78 sq mi) in the Ruhr.
There were times that the Germans were left wondering what the target was for a given raid. (pg 175)
Up through 1942, there was heavy discussion by the RAF as whether or not to discontinue night time bombing (pg 177-178) because of large number of RAF bombs (50%) landing in open countryside.
Bomber Command's accuracy did not improve until the Pathfinders and there are still instances of them lighting up the wrong target area.
What was the Pathfinders's role, if not to herd the following bombers to the lit up target area "like sheep?"
I am not addressing or comparing Bomber Command's and USAAF's bombing results in this post, only your assumption that individual navigators were able to direct aircraft
to the target and back.