Flight Sergeant (later Flight Lieutenant) Lionel Manning at his bomb sight in a Lancaster of No. 463 Squadron RAAF, at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, England, c. April 1944. For a few agonising minutes on any operation, the bomb aimer controlled the bomber. Lying, or kneeling, in the nose compartment he peered through his bomb sight at the target below, and under his direction to the pilot the bomber would fly straight and level until the bomb aimer released the bombs. As soon as a photo-flash camera had taken a picture of the ground below, he informed the pilot 'bombs gone'. Sometimes the bomb aimer had to make the unpopular decision, in a situation where the plane was very vulnerable to enemy anti-aircraft fire, to go around for another bomb run as he had been unable, usually from bad ground visibility, to see the target. [AWM SUK14782]
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