The photo shown above was taken above the oil port of Giurgiu in Romania on the River Danube. This was an important precision target because much of the oil from the Ploesti complex of refineries was being shipped by barge from this port up the Danube to Germany. The target was the group of oil tanks at the far left of the picture. Bombing height was 9,000 feet. One must remember that the attack took place at night - in this case at 1:55 in the morning. When the bomb load was released in a stick (i.e.: one at a time) rather than a "salvo" when the whole lot went down together the bombs would "walk across the target" rather than all arriving in one load on one spot. The load this night was 6 x 500 lb. MC bombs and 2 x 250 lb. GP. The bomb load was less than normal because the distance from Amendola to Giurgiu necessitated the installation of an overload" tank in one of the three bomb bay cells. Thus, the number of bombs and the total weight of attack suffered from long distances. Giurgiu was just about at the limit of the range of a Wellington X.

If you draw a line horizontally halfway up the photo you will see the target as it came into the bombaimer's drift wires ( the aircraft was moving from right to left in this case). When the bombaimer released the bomb load by pressing the bomb release button which was connected by a cable to the bombing control panel, a  very powerful magnesium flare ( about one million candlepower) would be released at the same time. It would be slowed by a parachute and would go off about 15 seconds after the bomb load had left the aircraft. During this time it was important for the pilot to hold the aircraft straight and level - a rather dangerous thing to do when flak and fighters were coming up at you. When the flash went off the open lens of the camera in the aircraft would capture the target and the information shown under the photo. Debriefing experts could, by looking at the photo, get a pretty good idea about the success of the bombaimer. In this case the bombaimer was "spot on" and got an excellent photo to show it. (photo: "Shorty" Long)

Wellington Bombaimer at his Mk. 9 Bombsight (photo: Brendan MacConnachie)

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