America's Pursuit of Precision Bombing, 1910-1945

The major lesson to emerge from WWI in connection with aerial bombing was the need for greater accuracy. This excellent scholarly study traces the interwar development of an aiming device that would enable airmen to drop bombs where they wanted them to go, then details that device's role in the American bombing campaigns of WWII. Essentially, this is the history of the legendary Norden bombsight, the technological centerpiece of the world's most precise bombing system. McFarland (coauthor with Wesley Phillips Newton of To Command the Sky) recounts America's unpreparedness for mass production of Carl Norden's brilliant invention, then how the military-industrial complex got it in working gear. He also covers the training of bombardiers in the attempt to achieve precision bombing during the war. Finally, he reviews the bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan, focusing on the switch to incendiary raids against the latter, a strategy ``based on killing people rather than blowing up industries.'' Illustrations not seen by PW. (June)