Supposedly bought at a yard sale. From another forum..

[A. F Medic]

Norden bomb sight!

Information

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[jonnyc]

I don't see why not. Pretty neat thing to have. I wouldn't pay much for one, but an interesting piece of history.

[jon_norstog]

From a yard sale.... Sheesh!! If you only knew what Goering would have paid for one of those!

People were shot for getting too close to one of those things if it was none of their business, back in the day.

[Kirk]

Goering got lots of these, salvaged from downed B17s, B24s, B25s & B26s. They didn't fit the German doctrine of air bombardment & by early 1943 were too engaged with the Russians to care much.

[Peter Laidler]

Can anyone explain the principles of this sight or where can I find a simple explanation?

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Peter,

Here's a couple of links.
(Keep in mind, 'Wikipedia' isn't always completely accurate, but the text I just read sounded close, from what I've heard) - hth

Norden bombsight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NORDEN BOMBSIGHT

[Peter Laidler]

Thanks for that Cafd. I'll rad through it when I get an hour or so. Not the sort of thing that you'd make a replica of in your garage is it?

[Edward Horton]

Not to change the subject but I worked with a 8th Air Force "Togglier", the 8th Air force lost so many trained air crew members that bombardiers were in very short supply. A Togglier sat in the nose of the B-17 and the trained bombardiers were in the lead of each flight, when the lead bombardiers dropped their bomb load with the norden bombsight it turned a green light on the tail of their aircraft. When the "Togglier" saw the green light come on the aircraft in front of him he dropped his bomb load.

[Edward Horton]

During the Vietnam air war our American Air Force Strategic Air Command B-52s used carpet bombing techniques trying to interdict and stop supplies and the NVA from infiltrating into South Vietnam.

We referred to our Air Force brothers involved in this carpet bombing activities as SAC trained monkey killers. This is because they killed more monkeys than anything else.

We also dropped land mines disguised as elephant dung on the Ho Chi Min trail in an effort to kill NVA troops heading south, the problem was the NVA were smart enough not to step in elephant $hit.

[GaryV2]

During the Vietnam air war our American Air Force Strategic Air Command B-52s used carpet bombing techniques trying to interdict and stop supplies and the NVA from infiltrating into South Vietnam.

We referred to our Air Force brothers involved in this carpet bombing activities as SAC trained monkey killers. This is because they killed more monkeys than anything else.

We also dropped land mines disguised as elephant dung on the Ho Chi Min trail in an effort to kill NVA troops heading south, the problem was the NVA were smart enough not to step in elephant $hit.

The value of having politicians deciding what constituted a valuable target.