Low Level Bombsight MK1 info sought !

Thank you Ross for the Info very informative.

Air Ministry,Thank you again,Pleased it looks complete,Found a bomb release button in the shed and May consider restoring the sight and putting on the shelf.

Was there a special mounting bracket for this sight ?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]240571[/ATTACH]

Garry

Hi Garry, and thanks for the extra photos.

I’d say the sight is pretty much complete apart from the aforementioned rubber eyepiece.

Note the inclusion of a scale in Knots as well as M.P.H., for use by Coastal Command and, possibly, the F.A.A.

The spring clip should contain a standard bomb release button which would make it look even more complete.

The early Coastal use with Anson was problematic as it did not have a setting for one of the effective a/s bombs of the time (250 or 500 lb – one size should be missing from the edge scale)

Without a setting these needed to be dropped by Mk.I eyeball and pre war they were not issued for practice so on commencement of hostilities so no crew had any practice in deployment.

This was the reason they were withdrawn quickly from Coastal operational aircraft.

Tests just after the end of the Great War showed that a bomb of greater than 300lb was needed to cause damage to U-Boats of the era.

Between the wars this lesson was ignored and the standard a/s bomb was set at 100lb. This was the size the crews practiced with.

On 5th Sept Anson crews in error carried out Blue on Blue attacks on HMS Spearfish and HMS Seahorse with the 100lb weapons with no damage inflicted, then on 3rd Dec HMS Snapper received a blue on blue attack with a direct hit from a 100lb bomb at the base of the conning tower which caused 4 lights to break only.

The lesson from the Great War needed to be re-learned and the switch was made to a higher weight bomb not covered by the standard settings.

Ross

Hi Air Ministry

Thank you for your reply,Most helpful.
Must admit pictures where taken in the shed,Not the best place,Took some more this morning.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]240526[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]240527[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]240528[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]240529[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]240530[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]240531[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]240532[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]240533[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]240525[/ATTACH]

Hi Garry, nice finds!

It’s hard to say how much of the LLBS Mk. I is missing because most of the settings and scales are on the side of the sight you have not illustrated. It is missing a rubber eyepiece but this would have almost certainly have perished away many years ago.

The sight came into service in 1939 but fell out of favour quite quickly. I would imagine machines tasked with low level work in Coastal and Bomber Commands would have carried one at the outset of the war but facts are hard to come by.

The other item is a nice piece too. It’s an accessory to the Mk. XIV sight and was used in aircraft not having a D.R. compass. It was used to feed the aircraft’s course into the computor unit manually.