This is something that has been bugging me for years:
During World War II, great precautions were taken to guard the secrecy of the Norden bombsight. The sight was loaded onto its aircraft just before takeoff under armed guard. It was covered from view until in the air. Upon landing, it was immediatly removed, again under armed guard and secured. By the war’s end, over 45,000 bombardiers had been trained in its operation, each of them swearing under oath to protect its secrecy if need be with their lives.
The Bombardier’s Oath:
Mindful of the secret trust about to be
placed in me by my Commander in Chief,
the President of the United States, by whose
direction I have been chosen for bombardier
training… and mindful of the fact that I am
to become guardian of one of my country’s
most priceless military assets, the American
bombsight… I do here, in the presence of
Almighty God, swear by the Bombardier’s
Code of Honor, to keep inviolate the secrecy
of any and all confidential information
revealed to me, and further to uphold
the honor and integrity of the Army
Air Forces, if need be, with my life itself.
On August 6, 1945, bombardier Major Thomas Ferebee used a Norden bombsight to drop the uranium bomb, Little Boy, from the B-29 Enola Gay, 31,000 feet above Hiroshima.
This is what is bugging me: With all of the aircraft that were lost over Occupied Europe (and Asia for that matter), why wasn’t an intact or partially intact example of this sight ever captured or reverse engineered by the enemy? And what about the one’s that were flown into Sweden or Switzerland by crippled aircraft? I know they were precision instruments and very delicate, but German engineers couldn’t rebuild one or figure out how it worked? Or did they just not care? Did the bombsight have some kind of self destruct mechanism? Do any of you guys know the answer? Please help me on this. Thanks!