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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207 - Tank Warfare in North Africa, 1942-43
206 - The Extraordinary Life of Journalist Wallace Carroll
205 - Victory to Defeat: The British Army 1918-40
204 - Armour in the Pacific
203 - The Battle of Britain, July 1940
202 - Leningrad, 1941-42
201 - Japanese Americans in WWII
200 - The Life of Mrs George S Patton
199 - Patton, August - December 1944
198 - Kesselring
197 - Kohima
196 - Winthrop Bell: Cracking the Code
195 - Their Finest Hour Project
194 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf
193 - London Underground
192 - 'The Angels', The 11th Airborne Division
191 - US Glider Pilots of World War II
190 - Mussolini's Last 10 Days
189 - The Stalingrad Airlift
188 - Company of Heroes
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