Most Secret War

by R.V. Jones

Had we realized the improvement in our bombing technique we might have abandoned area bombing earlier, or at least have put more effort into precision attacks at night. The precedent was already with us, for example in the raid that I myself had requested—that on the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen on 22nd June 1943. Here we used the Master Bomber technique, and when it was combined with Oboe pathfinding, precision attacks became distinctly feasible. Even without Oboe at Friedrichshafen, the random bombing error was no more than 400 yards. But we had become so indoctrinated with the area policy that few of us realized that Portal’s original oil bombing policy could now have been revived with a hope of success.