Bombing and Gunnery Training

Heroes Remember

Bombing and Gunnery Training

Transcript

We started off doing cross country navigation trips and at the end of the trip maybe two hours or an hour and a half you ended up either at a bombing range or a gunnery area and the bomb aimer would pick out the target and we would take so many runs from different directions and your bomb contact were plotted and you were marked on your efficiency as a crew. It wasn't the bomb aimer that was being checked, it was the crew. Because you're all involved in how that aircraft got to that position and those bombs got dropped. And then, of course, we would pick up a drogue ship and the gunners would have a chance at trying to shoot down the drogue, but not shoot down the throw pilot. So you would do a certain amount of training and then the navigator would take over again and take the aircraft back to your base.

Description

Mr. Campbell describes bombing practice and adjudication, and air gunnery practice against drogues, towed aerial targets.

John Campbell

John Campbell was born in October, 1923 in Coleman, Alberta. He was the younger of two brothers. His father was a coal miner and Mr. Campbell credits the mine’s support of the local school for his good education. Following the death of both his parents, he went into the mine. Because of the diverse ethnic mix in Coleman, the onset of war saw many miners return home to serve in their respective forces. He enlisted in 1942, joining the Air Force and becoming a bomber pilot. He finished his full complement of thirty-two missions with the same crew. After the war he remained in the Air Force and was a first responder on the DEW Line.

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