Quote:
Originally Posted by SES
Hi Tony,
You are not far off the mark, but I think bomb release was done in level flight - with a CEP of 1.000 m  .
And there was no sure way of destructing a bridge until the advent of the laser or GPS guided bombs, provided the bomb is big enough.
bregds
SES |
Please explain "a CEP of 1.000 m".
Actually this is a reminder that there were three bombing techniques available on the Ar234 B-2.
a) shallow dive using the PV1B periscopic sight with the on-board BZA bombing computer, which presumably released the bomb/s automatically
b) under autopilot with the aircraft aimed at the target using the Lotfe bombsight which was integrated with the bombing computer that released the bomb/s automatically. I read that this method was not popular.
c) what is called the EGON flight control (sic) system using the FuG 25a IFF transceiver in conjunction with two Gemse-Freyas. Presumably the pilot dropped the bomb when told to by the controller over the W/T.
Well, two suitable Gemses existed, and theoretically also two Zyklops, on the hills at Petersberg and Rüscheid, which were almost in line of sight of Remagen bridge which could therefore be accurately 'painted'. But even if the target was accurately identified, there was no way of delivering a bomb onto it from a fast moving aircraft.
The conclusion must be that in 1945 the only certain way of hitting a pin-point target was either to go in vertically or to send sufficient bombers with sufficient bombs of sufficient size to make it statistically highly likely that one would hit the bridge. This presumably was how the Seine bridges were brought down by BC/VIIIUSAAF in the Transportation Plan.
I have found a reference to Mitchells bombing the Wesel bridges under MRCP, which I will summarise in the RAF section. It was no more accurate than AR 234 B-2s under EGON.
The GAF, however, had the means of going in vertically with the Ju-87, but these were shot out of the skies by Flak, as was the Ar234 B-2. Increasing top speed did not solve the Flak problem, although it might have reduced it, but increasing top speed made the pilot more reliant on mechanical bombing aids, which in 1945 were unreliable.
Flak suppression was the missing ingredient.
Tony