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A Closer Look at Bombing Missions:
Bombing missions usually began with an early breakfast of powdered eggs, toast, and black coffee -- a fairly typical day for anyone, only slightly more dangerous. The pilots and their crews then heading to the briefing. There were separate briefings for pilots, navigators, and bombardiers.
Targets were detailed and discussion was held, then the crews would head to their planes. For bombing missions based out of England, crews had to deal with the persistent heavy cloud cover. In order to properly begin the mission, a brightly colored assembly plane would be sent up. These planes were not fit for combat but were used to organize the squadron after takeoff.
Each squadron would takeoff and climb on a given heading, air speed, and rate of climb. After so many minutes, they would turn and head back toward the airfield in what they called the "racetrack."
This procedure continued until they broke through the clouds, sometimes taking an hour and bringing them to altitudes as high as 20,000 feet. At this point, they located their assembly plane and formed up as three plane "flights" and then as twelve plane squadrons.. The "flights consisted of a lead squadron with the head pilot and navigator, a second squadron in the "high right" position, a third squadron at the "low left" position, and the fourth squadron in the "low rear" position. |