WWII statistics, bombing? Anyone know?

[usm2b]

Does anybody know a credible website that has information on US bomber accuracy during WWII? Preferably Germany, I found tons of stuff about tonnage, but nothing really about percentages of bombs that hit vs. missed.

Thanks, I do appreciate it.

[Deftoner]

I doubt there would be much of that info around.... It was essentially carpet bombing, accuracy went out the window (except for maybe specific missions). Sure, one bomb out of twelve or so may have hit the intended target....

I'm looking though, cos now i'm interested. ;)

[Mark Sman]

I know this isn't what you asked for, but sometimes source material can point you in the right direction.

THE UNITED STATES STRATEGIC BOMBING SURVEY

http://www.anesi.com/ussbs02.htm

A more in depth version
http://www.ussbs.com/ovr-all_rpt-eur-ussbs-excerpts.pdf

From a site that probably has it better
http://www.ussbs.com/

Especially their bibliography page
http://www.ussbs.com/biblio.html

[Mark Sman]

This might be the best version of the summary from a source standpoint.

http://aupress.au.af.mil/Books/USSBS/USSBS.pdf

[Mark Sman]

A word needs to be said on the problem of accuracy in attack. Before the war, the U. S. Army Air Forces had advanced bombing techniques to their highest level of development and had trained a limited number of crews to a high degree of precision in bombing under target range conditions, thus leading to the expressions "pin point" and "pickle barrel" bombing. However, it was not possible to approach such standards of accuracy under battle conditions imposed over Europe. Many limiting factors intervened; target obscuration by clouds, fog, smoke screens and industrial haze; enemy fighter opposition which necessitated defensive bombing formations, thus restricting freedom of maneuver; antiaircraft artillery defenses, demanding minimum time exposure of the attacking force in order to keep losses down; and finally, time limitations imposed on combat crew training after the war began. It was considered that enemy opposition made formation flying and formation attack a necessary tactical and technical procedure. Bombing patterns resulted -- only a portion of which could fall on small precision targets. The rest spilled over
Page 5
on adjacent plants, or built-up areas, or in open fields. Accuracy ranged from poor to excellent. When visual conditions were favorable and flak defenses were not intense, bombing results were at their best. Unfortunately, the major portion of bombing operations over Germany had to be conducted under weather and battle conditions that restricted bombing technique, and accuracy suffered accordingly. Conventionally the air forces designated as "the target area" a circle having a radius of 1000 feet around the aiming point of attack. While accuracy improved during the war, Survey studies show that, in the over-all, only about 20% of the bombs aimed at precision targets fell within this target area. A peak accuracy of 70% was reached for the month of February 1945. These are important facts for the reader to keep in mind, especially when considering the tonnages of bombs delivered by the air forces. Of necessity a far larger tonnage was carried than hit German installations.


Huh. Pretty rough.

[Kilgor]

Does anybody know a credible website that has information on US bomber accuracy during WWII? Preferably Germany, I found tons of stuff about tonnage, but nothing really about percentages of bombs that hit vs. missed.

Thanks, I do appreciate it.

Id recommend this book too

http://www.amazon.com/Air-War-1939-1945-Cornerstones-Military/dp/1574887165/sr=1-4/qid=1166695995/ref=sr_1_4/103-1191008-8430266?ie=UTF8&s=books

[usm2b]

thank you sooo much! Everybody except deftoner that is... it has now been 10 hours since your post, and you are the only one who has not offered any information. I guess you failed didn't you? DIDN'T YOU!?! p-)

[Deftoner]

thank you sooo much! Everybody except deftoner that is... it has now been 10 hours since your post, and you are the only one who has not offered any information. I guess you failed didn't you? DIDN'T YOU!?! p-)

I guess I did:-(

Like I said there isn't much to be found.... p-)

This is quite interesting though, but its more for information on the bombs/ordnance used: http://www.ww2guide.com/bombs.shtml

Here too: http://www.brushfirewars.org/weapons/aircraft_armament/wwi_german/ww1_german_aircraft_armament_1.htm

but sadly nothing specific yet....

[fuzzyramirez]

Seems like it was 2 for 2 in Japan.

[Oneto15]

I regret that I no longer have the source matériel in my possession for the statement that I am about to submit, but here goes...

As far as I can remember:

The CEP (Circular Error Probability), For the Norden bomb sight equipped Boeing B17 was One Mile. That is to say, that with the cross hairs on the target, and taking into account all of the other variables, the released bomb could hit anywhere within a circle with a radius of one mile centred on the target. As a result in order to guarantee putting a Single bomb on an intended target the size of a warehouse, given the B17's bombload, it would be necessary to sortie 1000 aircraft over the target.

I know this information is purely anecdotal and certainly open to correction, however, I hope it is of some use to you.

Ps. Here's one source that i managed to find;

MATHEMATICS AND WAR 30 November 2001
Draft Essay for
Hutchinson Companion Encyclopedia of Mathematics
Bernhelm Booss-Bavnbek, Roskilde University (Denmark)

"A variety of mathematical algorithms are implemented in modern terminal guidance systems for missiles and bombs. The most important techniques are terrain contour matching by Fast Fourier Transform, Laser guidance by Fourier optics, satellite based Global Positioning System, precision timing for free fall bomb dropping. They have reduced the Circular Error Probable (CEP) from 1100 m in World War II to 13 m by the turn of the century. Here CEP denotes the radius of a disc around the goal point such that (on average) 50% of the bombs hit inside the disc."


Regards. Oneto15

[Connaught Ranger]

Not quite what your looking for, but I believe the US started to use radio-controlled bombs in the Pacific campaign particularly so as bridge busters against bridges on the Burma railways, and against Japanese shipping, the bombs had a flare in the tail and were tracked towards the target by an operator aboard the plane, he could alter the direction by sending radio signals to the bomb, which moved the fins up, down.

A very primative device but it had a good success rate over Burma where flack was probably light and air defences not as heavy as what would be encountered over Fortress Europe.

Connaught Ranger.

[Mastermind]

Although this is not a definitive report on the allied bombing accuracy, it is a really excellent synopsis of the entire air war effort. It is the US Post War bombing survey - Sept 1945
http://www.anesi.com/ussbs02.htm#tgsp

Hope it helps some...MM