How Accurate Was Our Top Secret WWII Norden Bombsight?

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First, many thanks to long-time FASF member and long-time President of the EAA’s well-known chapter in Las Cruces, NM, Wes Baker, for the idea to post this story!

Some of you who, like your Webmaster, grew up during WWII, believed we had a super weapon in the highly touted Norden Bombsight.  We heard about it regularly in the mainstream press, and even heard glowing reports of its “pin-point” accuracy all through the war – right up to and including the two nuclear bombings in Japan of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

However, it seems we were propagandized, because things were not, in reality, quite the way they were described to us.  Also, thanks to Maxwell Air Force Base, we have the following story.  Here, with the text, you will see some photos of the device.

The enigma of the Norden Bombsight

  • Published 
  • By Christopher Kratzer
  • Air University Public Affairs

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. —  The chief of staff reading list has been updated this year to provide Airmen a guide to further their education and expertise. This year the list includes several TED talks, including “The Strange Tale of the Norden Bombsight,” by Malcolm Gladwell, a Canadian journalist, author, and speaker.

The Norden Bombsight is on display at Air War College and Air Force Enlisted Heritage Hall.

Photo of the famed NORDEN BOMBSIGHT of WWII – Photo supplied by Wes Baker

The bombsight, developed by Carl Norden, a Swiss engineer, was used by the U.S. Navy and Army Air Forces beginning in World War II until its retirement during the Vietnam War.

Norden believed the device would lower the suffering and death toll from the war by allowing pinpoint accuracy during bombing runs.”The device had an incredible moral importance to Norden because he was a committed Christian,” Gladwell said. “What did the Norden Bombsight do? It allowed you to bomb only those things which you absolutely needed and wanted to bomb.”
The Norden, essentially an analog calculator, could adjust for air density, wind drift, the bomber’s airspeed, and groundspeed while controlling the bombers’ final run on the target.
It was called “the single most complicated mechanical device ever manufactured,” according to Stephan Wilkinson in his book, “Man and Machine.”
Despite being highly sophisticated, the bombsight was not as accurate as reported. Even though Army Air Forces information officers claimed the bombsight could “drop a bomb into a pickle barrel from 30,000 feet,” reality told a different story, according to Avers Don Sherman, a writer who studied the Norden saga.”The Norden had only a 20-power telescope, so you couldn’t even see a pickle barrel from 30,000 feet, much less hit it. You could make out a factory, but that was about it,” Sherman said. “It was also very easy to defeat the Norden when it was used at high altitudes. Smoke screens worked just fine, ground fog was a barrier and the simple fact was that the year of the most disastrous B-17 raids, 1943, saw an unusual amount of bad weather over Europe.”One of the most famous failings of the Norden Bombsight came in 1944 when the Allies bombed a chemical plant in Leuna, Germany.“This chemical plant comprised 757 acres. Over the course of 22 bombing missions, the Allies dropped 85,000 bombs on the 757-acre chemical plant using the Norden Bombsight. What percentage of the bombs do you think landed in the perimeter of this 757-acre plant?

Ten percent, and of those 10 percent that landed 60 percent didn’t even go off. They were duds,” Gladwell said. “The Leuna chemical plant, after one of the most extensive bombings in the history of the war, was up and running within weeks.”The bombsight was heavily guarded and shrouded in secrecy to keep the technology out of the hands of Germany. Bombardiers were required to take an oath saying they would protect the bombsight with their lives if necessary, and the device was loaded with thermite, melting the device into a lump of metal. All these measures proved unnecessary since Germany became aware of the bombsight in 1938, according to Gladwell.“Carl Norden, as a proper Swiss man, was enamored by German engineers. In the 1930’s he hired a bunch of them, including a man named Herman Long, who in 1938 gave a complete set of the plans for the Norden Bombsight to the Nazis,” Gladwell said. “They had their own Norden Bombsight throughout the entire war, which also, by the way, didn’t work very well.“Gladwell uses the story of the bombsight to show how technology doesn’t solve all our problems and often ultimately gives us unforeseen consequences.

“I have not described to you a success story,” Gladwell said. “I’ve described to you the opposite of a success story. This is the problem of our infatuation with the things we make. We think that the things we make can solve our problems, but our problems are much more complex than that. The issue isn’t the accuracy of the bombs you have, it’s how you use the bombs you have and more importantly, whether you ought to use bombs at all.”

Norden Bombsight in the nose of a B-17 Flying Fortress

This proved to be true for Norden and his bombsight. On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay used a Norden Bombsight to drop an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.

Diagram and Explanation of Bombsight’s Components

“The bomb missed its target by 800 feet, but of course, it didn’t matter, and that’s the greatest irony of all,” Gladwell said. “The air force’s $1.5 billion bombsight was used to drop its $3 billion bomb, which didn’t need a bombsight at all. No one told Carl Norden that his bombsight had been used over Hiroshima. He was a committed Christian. He thought he had designed something that would reduce the toll and suffering in war. It would have broken his heart.”

COMMENT BY YOUR WEBMASTER:

Although not cited much, if at all, when doing searches using several of the most popular search engines, there is little to no mention of the famous American Engineer and Inventor, Nathan Pritikin, who made some vital engineering contributions to the production of the Norden Bombsight during WWII.  He is more well known as a millionaire eccentric and pioneer in the use of natural foods to cure diseases, one who became a largely self-taught and highly respected nutritionist after WWII.

Please let us know if you have any particular knowledge or experience with the Norden Bombsight.

 

2 thoughts on “How Accurate Was Our Top Secret WWII Norden Bombsight?”

  1. Nikoli Antoinette McCracken

    I was curious. I WAS born before WW II (1938) and have been interested in military stuff all my life. Even married a Navy Submariner. And ultimately, worked in aerospace, including programs we did not discuss. Women were not particularly welcome in the 1960s, and we had to work hard to prove we could do the job. I managed it. I was a technical illustrator, graphic artist, drafter.
    Another oddity about some of our weapons: Until about 1943, our torpedoes were pretty much duds, too. We lost several remarkable subs and their captains and crews, because they’d get enemy ships in perfect position, fire the torpedoes, and —
    nothing! Then, having been alerted to the sub’s presence, here came the destroyers.
    Yet, the failure of the Japanese to take out the Submarine base during December 7, gave them a job to protect our other facilities and ships, all during the war. After 1943, their torpedoes were much better. I’ve read every book I could lay my hands on about submarines, even before I met my husband. Another fact you might have trouble finding, is that Jacques Cousteau, using scuba gear made of old fire bottles, and pressure gauges out of facets, managed to swim under an Italian ship, plant a limpet mine on the hull, and swim away before it went off! Sank it, too.
    You might be interested in books by Commander Edward Ellsberg. He wrote a LOT.
    Including one called “Under the Red Sea Sun.” Also, Commander Edward Beach, “Run Silent, Run Deep.”
    I enjoyed this site. Thanks.

    Reply ↓
    1. RIC Post author

      Thanks so much, Nikoli, for not just commenting, but contributing more factual and informed technical detail to our WWII history.
      Actually, an upper age teenager during WWII, I remember it well, although I was in a Military Academy, but not engaged in the war
      itself. My Dad was in the Navy, too, although mostly on Carriers (a pilot, but not in the Navy). Some of the movies of that era
      showed (Hollywood make-believe) dud torpedoes being launched, only to reveal the sub’s presence. So wondered how serious this
      problem was, but knew no Submariners I could ask. Now I wish I could go and ask my recently deceased neighbor, who WAS a submariner
      about his post WWII experiences and the torpedo issue. Actually, we also suffered from both rocket, and bomb malfunctions, not to
      mentions dead machine gun and gatling gun duds. In fact, dud still do happen. Congratulations and breaking that too tough glass
      ceiling! Good work – – – and great backbone.

      Looks as though you’re a youngster, because I’m 9 years older, born in 1929.

      Neat that you were a technical illustrator and graphics artist. They remain the creators of so many of our new and often beautiful technical
      manifestations, from cars, to planes, trains, and what else. I knew a fellow who was the chief Artist for NASA, Bob McCall, and he not only
      did the gorgeous mural at the Johnson Space Center, but the US Stamp honoring NASA, and would work with engineers to design new space vehicles,
      too.

      I married a gal I met back East in College, and she became a commercial pilot, but when I was in the USAF as a pilot, she
      just had to hear and jealously bear my enthusiasm for flying jets, because they laughed at her eagerness and attempts to
      get into AF aviation, too. That’s the reason I bailed out early, because it was so unfair and didn’t forebode well for
      my marriage’s future. So I understand your battle to succeed in a male-dominated technical culture. This is why you’ll
      find lots of material on this site intended to show that women can do “it,” too!

      Thanks so much for commenting – and Godspeed!

      ric lambart

      Reply ↓

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