On 8 July 2014 04:45, Gordon Williams wrote: > The successes are always written about, the failures brushed under the > carpet ... > > I've seen any amount of discussion of the becrumbed carpet. Have you read Harris' autobiography. I doubt if he could pull a punch to save his life. > There were many, many more failures than successes based on post war > analysis. > > Deep ends on how you define "success". I have seen numerous accounts of sober assessments being made at the time. > There is a difference between dropping something at roof top vs dropping > it at 10,000 - 20,000 feet. > > Indeed. As US showed in was-Yugoslavia :-(. A book says: > "In reality, > ... " > Probably true. And? Harris long realised what he wanted and needed to do. Ending up with cities looking like they largely looked largely constituted success. 'Know your tool'. Utilise what it can do for you. In fact the 80+% that fell outside the > target area were very damaging to the allied cause. > > Why? (I could propose reasons, but what was in mind when that was written= ). Navigation was a big problem, but figuring out the bomb trajectory after > release with all the variables in play was just as large. > > Yes. Good things were said about the Mk XIV bombsite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_XIV_bomb_sight For completeishness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabilized_Automatic_Bomb_Sight and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight http://www.twinbeech.com/norden_bombsight.htm http://www.twinbeech.com/norden_bombsight.htm Norden / S[erry stoush http://thevaluesell.com/images/LSearle_bombsight.pdf Whatever :-) > Gordon Williams > > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .