Master Bomber

Heroes Remember

Master Bomber

Transcript

Oh what you'd see of course was the, the target indicator, that's what you were after. Now mind you, if that target indicator, and it was dropped by a master bomber, but if it was at, on the, it was erroneously positioned, the master bomber would tell you what corrections to make to counteract that mistake, if there was one. If there wasn't, of course, you'd follow through as is. Well, we had a graticule which, yeah it did, it had a cross and when that intersection of these, of these lines and your bomb site, when they were where you felt they should be, then you released the bomb. And the, they were, they were very good at it, of course that's what they were trained to do, and all of us, and we all improved as we went, the same as our equipment. I mean, when you think of the aircraft we started out with and we only had twin engine, then we bumped up to the four engine, and..

Description

Mr. Reid describes in detail the technique of aiming bombs. He adds some comments about improving technology.

Bill Reid

Mr. Reid was born on August 15, 1922, in Toronto, Ontario. His upbringing was middle class, and he disagreed with Hitler's ideology. As a consequence, and along with 5 friends, he decided to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force so that he might ‘learn to fly at the government's expense.' Ironically, government cutbacks cost him his ambition as a pilot and he was redeployed to bomber and gunnery school in Trenton. After sailing to England, Mr. Reid was eventually posted to Upper Hayford, where he trained on both Anson and Stirling bombers. He was finally posted to 49 Squadron, 5 Group and was the air bomber in a crew of seven aboard a Lancaster bomber.. Mr. Reid flew missions in both the German and Norwegian theatres. He retired from active service upon returning home with the rank of AC2, Flying Officer.

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