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Overview
As we have noted, the training of pilots as bombardiers often
fell short of expectations. As early as June of 1939 plans were under way to
establish a bombardier school at Lowry Field, Colorado, just east of Denver. The
purpose of this first school was to train bombardier instructors who would then
be sent to bombardier schools yet to be established. The first instructor class
started in July of 1940. The course was about eight weeks in duration. Lowry
trained three instructor classes, totaling 122 men, the last class graduating on
14 March 1941. Fifteen instructors, all enlisted men, taught all phases of the
course from ground school to in-flight bombing. Most of the bombers flown were
Douglas B-18A's and a few older B-18's. Most of these instructors were bombsight
and autopilot maintenance school graduates. The head instructor of this group
was Chief Warrant Officer Thomas J. Kelly, a legendary figure in bombardier
training. As with Eddie Kemp in the field of psychological testing, few
decisions were made in early bombardier training without first consulting Thomas
Kelly. The graduates of these courses were sent as bombardier instructors to
Barksdale Field, Louisiana, and to Ellington Field, Texas.
On 1 February 1941 a "Service Test Class", so-called,
was given a 10-week course in bomb aiming and dropping. The class of 34
graduated on 17 April 1941 and was considered ready for assignment to combat
duty. (The U. S. was not officially in combat anywhere on April of 1941 ). This
Lowry class is believed to be the first class of bombardiers (as opposed to
instructors) to be graduated from a formal Army Air Corps (then) bombardier
school. At the close of this course a report of the findings included a complete
course syllabus, ground school lectures, lists of required supplies and
equipment, training methods, flying hours necessary. etc., all for a 12-week
course. The 34 men who graduated (50 started) were assigned to B-17 squadrons
and many of them were at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. The school at Lowry
was closed shortly after graduation of this class and its instructors, both
officers and enlisted men, were eventually sent to other bombardier schools.
For a complete list of bombardier
training sites click here.
Bombardier School patches can seen here.
Bombardier schools were eventually established within two
training centers:
West Coast Training Center with schools in California,
Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Idaho (Albuquerque (Kirtland),
Roswell, Deming, Hobbs and Carlsbad in New Mexico; Lowry in Colorado; Geiger at
Spokane, Washington; and, Victorville, in California.) For more on this
center, click on the photos below.
From the 1943 Deming, NM yearbook:
Gulf Coast Training Center with schools in Louisiana
(Barksdale at Shreveport); and Texas (Ellington at Houston, Midland, Big Spring,
Childress and San Angelo.)
These were the basic seventeen sites where Bombardiers were
trained under varying degrees of supervision by training command authorities.
Prior to attendance at these advanced training schools, preflight schooling was
taken at Santa Anna, California, Ellington Field, Texas and later at Maxwell
Field, Alabama and Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas. As an initial processing
when aviation cadets entered the program, they went through classification
centers at Santa Ana, California (SAACCC), San Antonio, Texas SAACCC) or
Nashville, Tennessee (NACCC).
Finally, in this brief review of the formally constituted
bombardier training schools, we should note a set of circumstances initiated in
1942 when the Army Air Force was frantically searching for ways to train crews
for the B-17s, B-24s, B-25s and B-26s then rolling off the assembly lines in
increasing numbers. Beginning in June of 1942, with the United States barely six
months into the War (and not doing very well at the time), the four-week
pilot/bombardier/navigator preflight training center at Santa Ana Army Air Base,
25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, sent several classes (at least four) of 30 or
40 cadets each to the 39th Bomb Group at
Davis-Monthan Field at
Tucson, Arizona
for bombardier training. The 39th specialized in checking out new pilots in the
Group's B-24s. These classes from Santa Ana were given ground schooling at
Davis-Monthan and then sent to various operational units where the cadets
received in-flight training on the Norden or Sperry bombsight as the eleventh
crewman on B-l7's or B-24's, instructed by each airplane's operational
(combat-ready) bombardier.
Some cadets remained behind at Davis-Monthan to complete their
flight training. The first "class" of 40 left Santa Ana AAF Base on 14
June 1942 and spent two months at Davis-Monthan before being sent to the 34th
Bomb Group (B-17s) at Geiger Field near Spokane,
Washington. Most of the class
completed their in-flight training and graduated on 1 December 1942. The second
class of 30 cadets left Santa Ana on 19 June 1942. Some of these completed their
training at Davis-Monthan while others were sent to Geiger Field, or
Gowen Field
at Boise, Idaho to complete their bombardier training. The third class of 40
cadets left Santa Ana on 29 June 1942 for Davis-Monthan but for some reason were
rather quickly moved from one base to another.
Twenty-five cadets were shunted
from Davis-Monthan to Ephrata (Washington) AAF Base to Geiger Field, to Wendover
Field (Utah) to Pueblo, Colorado, and back to Davis-Monthan. About half this
class of 40 graduated from Geiger and half from Davis-Monthan, although the
records of four of the 40 are missing (three of the 40 were killed in
accidents). Finally, the fourth class of 40 did not leave Santa Ana until 17
August 1942 for Davis-Monthan Field. This group (a rather undisciplined, rowdy
lot according to the records) was split up into four 10 man groups (divide and
conquer) and sent to four different Training Command bombardier schools on 23
September 1942 (Williams Field, Victorville, Roswell and Kirtland). Other cadets
that remained at Santa Ana were eventually sent to bombardier training schools
to complete their training.
Geiger
Field, Washington appears to have received one class of
103 cadets directly from Santa Ana in 1942 that underwent their training there
(both ground school and flight training), graduating on 1 December 1942. To
round out this list, we mention again those few locations known to have been the
site of training of small numbers of bomb-aimers in the 1930's and in 1940
(there were probably others): Hamilton Field, near San Rafael, California;
Mitchell Field, Long Island, N.Y.; Hickam Field, Hawaii; and France Field,
Panama Canal Zone.
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