The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War

The first chapter is about the invention of the bombsight and its perceived ability to drastically change the nature of warfare. The inventor was Carl Norden, a Dutch national who was educated in Switzerland and immigrated to the United States. Norden was a fractious genius who left almost no records of his work, as he visualized and performed his calculations in his head. Little is known about his life despite his invention of such a monumentally significant piece of technology. As airplanes and bombs began to be used in war in the early-20th century, the goal became to improve their accuracy. Some believed that if bombs could precisely pinpoint targets, armies could be rendered obsolete and untold lives could be saved. War could be waged entirely from the air and do exactly the damage—and no more—that would cause the enemy to capitulate.

The difficulty lay in all the variables involved, not least of which were altitude, speed of the airplane, wind speed, temperature, and even the rotation of the Earth during the 30 seconds or so it took for a bomb to reach the ground. Norden came up with 64 algorithms that he thought addressed all relevant variables. He began working on the sight for the US Navy in the 1920s, and then later for the precursor of the Air Force, the Army Air Corps. The result was a 55-pound analog computer that sat on top of a gyroscope to keep it level. Officially called the Mark XV bombsight, it was ready for use in World War II. Training on the sight lasted a full six months, and it was such a coveted treasure that bombardiers were made to swear an oath to protect it with their lives if necessary.

This chapter details the mindset and sense of community among the faculty of pilots at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field in Alabama. They were a young, irreverent group looking to forge their own way even as they were under the command of the more traditional Army. Gladwell writes, “Their motto was: Proficimus more irretenti: ‘We make progress unhindered by custom’” (34). Others dismissively called them “the Bomber Mafia,” a moniker they adopted with pride.

They had four principles that made up a kind of doctrine, the first being that “the bomber will always get through” (37). Planes were no longer just small and fast fighters. They became much larger over time, powered by immense engines and able to fly higher and farther than ever—perfect for carrying bombs. They could be equipped with armor and defensive guns, so the thought was they were virtually invulnerable. Second, this invulnerable status meant bombing did not have to happen under the cover of darkness, as in the past, but could take place in broad daylight when, third, seeing your target and using a bombsight vastly improved accuracy. Finally, with a bombsight, the aircraft could remain high up in the sky rather than swoop down low where antiaircraft artillery could reach it. The Bomber Mafia’s enthusiasm for ideas was intoxicating because they were focused on the future and hoped-for accomplishments of what was not yet possible.

Gladwell highlights the radical nature of this group of pilots by using a comparison from the book The Masks of War. Author Carl Builder notes that the different cultures of the three military branches are present in the architecture of their respective chapels. The chapel at West Point is staid and built in Gothic style, reflecting the Army’s traditionalist nature. On the other hand, the Naval Academy’s chapel is a Beaux Arts structure with a dome and large windows, brash and bold like the Navy itself. Then there is the chapel of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Designed by Chicago architect Walter Netsch, it’s more Space Age than anything else; though it was built in 1962, Gladwell argues, it still looks futuristic today. The exterior is a series of tetrahedrons pointing upward like skyward-facing fighter jets.

The Bomber Mafia’s theory was forged in the wake of a 1936 flood in Pittsburgh. Many factories along the river were wiped out as a result, including one run by Hamilton Standard. This was the only company that built springs for the propellers used on most aircraft at the time, and the loss of the plant brought the airplane industry to a standstill. The Bomber Mafia took note. Instead of the conventional idea of bringing massive military power to bear on the enemy until surrender, they had the idea of bringing just enough power at the vital places—“choke points”—to make surrender the only option. These included power plants, bridges, and aqueducts. The pilots discussed this in a two-day presentation at the Tactical School in April 1939, which became the basis for a report to the US government in 1941, when America’s entry into World War II seemed inevitable. In it, they identified dozens of choke points in Germany that they thought would force surrender if destroyed by bombs.