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APPENDIX II
TEST RUNS WITH VISAR EQUIPMENT
The following three drawings show the results of practice runs as described in Appendix I. The bomb runs were all made at 20,000 feet true altitude and were made by radar only, that is, there was no visual sighting involved. None of the operators had a high degree of familiarity with the VISAR bombing technique. Some operators were familiar with the manipulation of the bombsight controls but not experienced in reading the Mickey scope. Some operators, on the other hand, lacked experience in handling the bombsight controls. The lack of experience in VISAR bombing shows in the results. It was quite common for the operators to become confused and make course corrections in a direction opposite to that which was proper. It must be remembered that these practice runs were not made by experienced VISAR operators. Therefore the results, which were highly satisfactory in most cases, indicate that with experience, very accurate course can be established (in practice) on a variety of targets. The runs were recorded by means of a camera mounted in the aircraft. An operator was assigned to maintain the camera in a vertical position and photographs were taken at approximately every thirty seconds.
Figure II-1.
Run 1 – Foggia. Target is difficult to find when approaching from this direction and is easily mis-identified. The target was not identified till two-thirds of the run was completed and then corrections were made in the wrong direction. Corrections were reversed but the aircraft was too close to the target to make a good run. Capt Beerli was bombardier and R. N. Davis was Mickey operator on those runs.
Run 2 – Barletta. A well made run after a few initial wrong turns while trying to find the target.
Run 3 – Bari Oil Refinery. Target was mis-identified and then corrections were begun in the wrong direction. Aircraft was then too close to the target to make a good run.
Run 4 – Bari Oil Refinery. A few overcorrections and wrong corrections were made but the run was satisfactory.
Figure II-2.
Run 1 – Pianosa Island. Target was not identified till aircraft was over the water. Bombardier did not start corrections till too late and was unable to get on the target. Bombardier on these runs was Major Wilson. Mickey operator was R. N. Davis. Mickey equipment was operating poorly with weak energy returns so that targets were lost several times. In addition, Mickey Operator used Center Brilliance Control in a faulty manner which added to the difficulty.
Run 2 – Foggia. Bombardier had some difficulty with overcorrecting and correcting in the wrong direction.
Run 3 – Termoli. Difficulty in finding target. Bombardier fell into a series of large overcorrections which resulted in a large error.
Run 4 – Manfredonia. Still some tendency to overcorrect.
Run 5 – Trani. Target was mis-identified and the run was made on Trani instead of Barletta. A satisfactory run.
Run 6 – Bari Oil Refinery. Excellent run was made on this industrial installation close to the city.
Run 7 – Lecce. Very good run was made on this small town.
Figure II-3.
Run 1. This is a standard Mickey run without using the VISAR equipment. Captain MacPherson Mickey operator.
Run 2 – 5. These runs were made by Mr. Kelley, Mr. Jarreau and Mr. Reinhard, Norden technical representatives. Illustrates what can be done by men who are neither trained bombardiers or Mickey operators. Captain MacPherson was Mickey operator.
Figure II-4.
Run 1 – Foggia City. R. N. Davis was bombardier on these runs and Captain Wohlers was Mickey operator. Set was operating poorly so that most targets were lost between 20 and 10 miles. This axis of attack is not a good Mickey approach. There was 5 degrees drift on the run.
Run 2 – Termoli. Target was lost for awhile during the run. This caused the jog in the course.
Run 3 – Manfredonia. There was 6o drift on this run.
Run 4-5 – Bari Oil Refinery. Difficulty in identifying target necessitated short runs.
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