I recently visited the United States Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base, near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. On display behind glass were four training manuals. One was the Bombardiers’ Information File, a copy of which is available to view in the AAF Collection.
Like pilots, cadets who trained to be bombardiers and navigators were assigned to different air fields for different phases of their training. They had preflight, gunnery and either bombardier or navigator training, or both.
Here are the phases of bombardier and navigator training as they were in 1944, adapted from The Official Guide to the Army Air Forces (New York: Pocket Books, Inc., May 1944).
