Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-01-21
Night Flyers Trained
To Find Targets for
Pinpoint BOMBING
BY ROMNEY WHEELER.

>AetCd EASSs w at CORRESPONDENT.
AN EIG HTH AIR FORCE
BOMBER BASE, Jan. IL DELAYED
To look at Capt. Victor Mozersky
flight surgeon, you would never
think his interest was bowling duck
pins In a pitch-dark room, or rolling
white medicine balls across a dark
ened floor.
1t sounds bit screwy-as Capt
Mozersky is the first to admit-but
1t produces night-fying American
aerial gunners, pilots and bonn
bardiers who can see like cats.
They are members of the 9th All,
Force "Newsboy Squadron" the only
American unit flying nocturnal mis-
sions exclusively 1t was originally
organized to carry on a leaf1et wal
against Germany and German-occu-
pied areas.
Believed Superior to Raj system.
Capt. Mozersky, a peacetime sur
geon whose home is in San Antonio
Tex, set up the training for night
flying when the squadron first began
leaf1et missions 18 months ago
American Air Force officers believe
1t is superior even to the Raj sys-
tenn on which it was based.
Our job" said Capt. Mozersky
lis to send EN- out so we'll trained
that eventually We send 'em home. "
With the aid of three enlisted
assistants Capt. Mozersky processes
In tWo-week courses every officer
and enlisted man assigned to the
squadron.
and gunners, trained to fly daylight
missions in close formation, must
be retrained to fly alone at night
and to find targets for pinpoint
bombing without the aid of special
lied pathfnders and flares used by
the Raj.
Night flyers must never look di-
rectly at an object, but above, below
or to the side
THE reason for this" Capt. Mo-
zersky explains, lis that the area
directly back of the eye can't see
at night, and light vibrations must
be picked up by eye areas which
receive them on an angle"
Look One Way, Shoot Another.
The hardest task is teaching gun
ners to look one way and shoot
another and to judge distance in
darkness. A complicated system of
lights reproduces conditions rang
ing from full moonlight to hazy
starlight.
Trained night flying crews be-
come able to distinguish objects
and judge distances in light con-
ditions which would be total dark
ness to an ordinary person.
Duckpin bowling at 20 yards, with
white flare cases as pins" is one
of the exercises developed by Capt.
Mozersky. Another is to sit the
men in a circle around a soft white
ball suspended from the ceiling.
They must try to catch the swinging
pendulum
Aerial photographs of actual tar
gets are shown under light condi-
lions duplicating what the night
crews will encounter.
Practice Against Silhouettes.
The crews practice gunnery
against silhouettes of enemy night
fighters on a machine which gives
the score of possible hits under
various degrees of darkness.
They learn to keep the enemy
in an illuminated ringsight while
looking away from the target" said
Capt. Mozersky. They learn how
to scan the sky continually for at
lacking night fighters, and judge
distance under deceptive condi-
tons.
THE laboratory creates a problem
likely to be met in actual operation
and teaches them how to meet it
without having to learn under the
conditions of actual combat. The
result is when they fly missions
they are ready to shoot and bomb
for keeps"
The records of the squadron
prove its success. Only one plane
has been lost to enemy action since
.1llly 1Qd2