Norden bombsight

The Allies 1939-1945, and those fighting against Germany.

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Patrick
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Norden bombsight

Post by Patrick »

I was watching the movie "Air Force" (1943) and a short scene was devoted to the procedure for the bombadier to destroy the bombsight lest it be captured by the Japanese. I'm aware that in actual practise the Norden bombsight did not live up to the hype. Given the supposed security measures to protect the bombsight and prevent its capture, surely at least one must have been recovered mostly intact from a crashed bomber/overrun airfield and evaluated by the Germans (or Italians or Japanese for that matter).

Were any Axis technical reports or evaluations/comparisons of the Norden bombsight recovered after the war? I'd find it ironic to learn that despite all the security, the Norden was found to be no better than what the Axis was already using.
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Patrick

When I was single, I had three theories on raising children. Now I have three children and no theories.
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PA. Dutchman
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Re: Norden bombsight

Post by PA. Dutchman »

It would appear German Agents had the Norden bombsight blue prints, they improved it and had their own design. An easier to use and better working bombsight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotfernrohr_7
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PA.Dutchman
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Patrick
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Re: Norden bombsight

Post by Patrick »

Thank you for the link - it was quite informative.

Odd, now that I think about it... I've read about many Allied intelligence coups but the number of German intelligence successes that I know of could probably be counted on one hand. Looks like I need to read more!
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Patrick

When I was single, I had three theories on raising children. Now I have three children and no theories.
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Re: Norden bombsight

Post by lwd »

Pre war the Germans had a number but most of their overseas network got rolled up pretty early in the war. This included Britain where many of the German agents were not only identified by the British but turned rather than incarcerated.
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