Jabberwocky
Staff Sergeant
The official US doctrine was 'daylight precision bombing' and the USAAF generally attempted to precision bomb, for a given value of 'precision'. That is, they used mass style attacks from high altitude aimed at single large 'point' targets (marshalling/rail yards, factory complexes, oil refineries, transport hubs ect), with wildly varying degrees of accuracy.
However, the VIII Air Force was willing to blind bomb as well. In fact given N/W European climactic conditions, it would have periodically been rendered ineffective if it had not adopted blind bombing techniques. To their credit, crews often abandoned missions if blind bombing equipment was not working (for example, on 20 March 1944, nearly 70% of bombers failed to bomb after the blind bombing equipment was found to be unservicable).
Precision in WWII was vastly different from modern precision bombing.
An 8th AF combat box ranged from 1200 ft to over 3000 ft wide and could be even longer than this.
The 8th AF improved its CEP from over 3000 ft in 1943 to just under 1000 ft by mid-1944. Medium altitude missions (15,000 ft) had an average CEP of 825 to 1175 ft.
Still, that meant that on average more than 50% of bombs were falling 1000 ft away from their targets.
However, the VIII Air Force was willing to blind bomb as well. In fact given N/W European climactic conditions, it would have periodically been rendered ineffective if it had not adopted blind bombing techniques. To their credit, crews often abandoned missions if blind bombing equipment was not working (for example, on 20 March 1944, nearly 70% of bombers failed to bomb after the blind bombing equipment was found to be unservicable).
Precision in WWII was vastly different from modern precision bombing.
An 8th AF combat box ranged from 1200 ft to over 3000 ft wide and could be even longer than this.
The 8th AF improved its CEP from over 3000 ft in 1943 to just under 1000 ft by mid-1944. Medium altitude missions (15,000 ft) had an average CEP of 825 to 1175 ft.
Still, that meant that on average more than 50% of bombs were falling 1000 ft away from their targets.