145 - Bomb Aimers
The WW2 Podcast
Angus Wallace
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2021
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the heavy bombers the role of the crew members was symbiotic. The pilot needed the flight engineer to fly; the navigator got the plane to the target, and it was the bomb aimer that delivered the ordinance.
Wartime films give the impression of the bomb aimer's job being simply to look through the bombsight and press the button to release the bombs at the right time. In actual fact, their job is much more sophisticated. They aided the navigator, took readings to be dialled into their computer connected bomb sight, and often they might also be expected to man a machine gun in the plane's nose.
In this episode I'm joined by Colin Pateman. If you recall in episode 76 I talked to Colin about Flight Engineers. Well, he's been busy since then and has just completed a new book Aiming for Accuracy which focuses on bomb aimers in the RAF.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's a great air race that yesterday and last night only a few hours passed, it is reported |
| 0:06.9 | this morning that German bombers and flighting planes are again over Southeast British Coastal |
| 0:10.8 | Tower. |
| 0:11.8 | I'm not good at getting up early, really early. |
| 0:15.5 | I mean, and even in summer, the really early morning air at 4 a.m. is chilly. |
| 0:21.3 | But this has compensations. |
| 0:23.9 | For after you've overcome the revulsion of getting out of a warm bed, there is something |
| 0:29.4 | exhilarating and thrilling at that hour of the morning, especially when there is the |
| 0:34.8 | prospect of a flying trip ahead. |
| 0:38.0 | As a rule, it's a good thing to have a cup of tea, or something hot and a biscuit. |
| 0:43.7 | It helps towards waking you up. |
| 0:47.0 | That was written for Over to You, a series of broadcasts by the AREF during the Second |
| 0:52.4 | World War. |
| 0:54.0 | What are men needed with a fine cup of chocks away from Tactical Tea? |
| 1:00.4 | Chocks away is a white tea, decent in a dogfight and rising above the rest through |
| 1:05.4 | adversity to the stars. |
| 1:08.0 | Tactical tea offer a wide variety of teas, white, black, fruit and herbal. |
| 1:13.2 | To order your supply, head over to TacticalT.uk and use the code www.podcast for 10% off |
| 1:21.2 | your order. |
| 1:22.4 | Tactical Tea, Wedging War on Bad Brows. |
| 1:28.1 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the World War II podcast, I'm Angus Wallace. |
| 1:33.6 | On the heavy bombers, the role of the crew members was symbiotic. |
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