Audio of Lancaster Under nightfighter attack

Originally Posted by Dave Eadsforth

1. The pilot is instructed to keep weaving after the navigator has
announced half a minute to go before bomb drop (and before the fighter
puts in an appearance). If the bomb aimer were staring through the bomb
sight stabilisation glass at that time, to get a straight run in on the
target, the last thing he would have wanted was a weave. And just who
is asking for the weave? Usually such a command was only given by a
gunner who had definitely seen a fighter - not the case at that time.
Then the pilot is told to steer 'left, left' - such a precise order
would not be given by the bomb aimer until the pilot had been told to
stop any weaving.

2. Then the pilot asks for more revs. Why - just at the time the bomb
aimer needs constant speed maintained for his bomb sight predicting
computer? This doesn't feel quite right.

3. Finally, the pilot is instructed to weave again at a time when the
bomber should have been flying straight and level for the post-drop
picture to be taken, and before the night fighter is sighted.

4. And did they really put a mike in the rear turret to record the
sound of the Brownings?

The bombing sequence has the feel of jargon being bunged in by a script
writer who did not know the true sequence of events before and after a
bomb release.

Cheers,

Dave

--
Dave Eadsforth

1. We know the mission was Berlin. It would have been an area bombing mission (the use of a cookie and incendiaries confirm this.) As the target itself would have been rather large, weaving to avoid/confuse flak gunners would not have been unusual nor caused the bombardier any problems. The instruction is actually coming from the bombardier anyway.

Rear gunners don't give the instruction to weave, they give the instruction to corkscrew.

2. As above, its an area bombing mission. No issues called by more revs. Pilot will be thinking about climbing away once the photorun has finished.

3. As long as they stay on course, weaving is not a problem.

4. The mid upper gunner got the kill, but even The sound is recorded from the crew's microphones, which picksup engine noise and the brownings. But most of all the picks up the voice of whoever is speaking into them, otherwise, what good do they serve? Recording or no recording.