Questions about the Halifax bomber.

[sebfrench76]

Hello dear gents.

These are not my questions,but the ones of a nice Canadian member of a historical forum.
Since there are great experts of the English flying legends,may be some of you may help.
I copy you his questions below.

" Three questions regarding bomb-aimers on Halifax’s, specifically Mk III versions that I am hoping some of our members may be able to address.

The bomb-aimer had two duties...bomb aiming (of course) as well as operating the front gun. I would assume a big part of manning the front gun would entail looking out for enemy planes. Now that would lead me to believe that during the time he was occupied with the bomb-aiming part of things that the plane would be missing an extra pair of eyes looking out and be blind from the front and.

So the first question is trying to identify how long he would actually be involved with specific bomb-aiming duties. Would it just be once they began the approach run and if so, how long would that normally be?

The second question is how does he actually man the front gun? If you look at the pictures below of the Halifax at the Yorkshire Air Museum you can see the bench and elbow pads when he was lying prone lining up the bomber prior to release of the bombs. I’m assuming he sat on the end of the bench when manning the gun but it seems like that would involve a bit of reach to the gun (can’t tell from picture) as well as the bombsight isn’t in the most convenient of positions for that.

The third is the position of the bench itself. Doesn’t it look like when the bomb-aimer is lying prone that he would be interfering with the navigator sitting at his table?

I'm sure comfort wasn't a high priority when they were designing these things.

The pictures came out way too big when I posted them so instead please have a look at the link:

A tour inside Halifax bomber LV907 ‘Friday 13th’ at Yorkshire Air Museum | aircrashsites.co.uk

Thanks in advance! "

Voila.Waiting for your replies,thanks in advance.

[sebfrench76]

Nobody??

[thorne83]

Not much assistance, but I would have assumed that the need for an extra pair of eyes, on the look out for fighters during the bomb run, would be unnecessary due to the fact that they would almost certainly be flying through thick flak, therefore, no fighters?
Cheers,

Tom