A marine air-observer team guides a marine Corsair in for a strike on an enemy-held hill. The “black Corsairs” were highly praised by army and marines alike for their precision strikes on targets and their extremely close support of forward units. (U.S. Marine Corps photo.)
This photo doesn’t look right. Usually, your bombs fall behind you. This bomb appears to have fallen directly under the aircraft that dropped it. Usually, such bombs are dropped in a dive bomb pass. The aircraft above looks like it dropped it in level flight. Worst of all, the aircraft is flying directly above a detonating bomb,which is likely to frag it. That’s why tactical aircraft drop bombs in such a way as to ensure separation, usually thousands of feet, between themselves and their bomb impact.
I wonder if this explosion is from a source other than the aircraft in this photo. Perhaps its from the Corsair’s flight lead, who has flown out of the photo to the left. Perhaps it’s artillery.
This photo doesn’t look right. Usually, your bombs fall behind you. This bomb appears to have fallen directly under the aircraft that dropped it. Usually, such bombs are dropped in a dive bomb pass. The aircraft above looks like it dropped it in level flight. Worst of all, the aircraft is flying directly above a detonating bomb,which is likely to frag it. That’s why tactical aircraft drop bombs in such a way as to ensure separation, usually thousands of feet, between themselves and their bomb impact.
I wonder if this explosion is from a source other than the aircraft in this photo. Perhaps its from the Corsair’s flight lead, who has flown out of the photo to the left. Perhaps it’s artillery.