HE111 Bomber Guide

This is my quick as a bunny bombsight guide.. Because I'm too lazy to throw up a REAL bomber guide.

Bombsight

This is the most important thing for the bomber to figure out, the bombsight. This view is obtained by hitting 2 on the keypad (looking down).
It is pictured in the centered position (more on this later).
A view Through the bombsite

Looking Through the Bombsight

This is a view through the bomsight. You get here by hitting the '.' (delete key) on the keypad.
It is pictured in the centered position (more on this later). Note the height and airspeed indicators on the left and right hand sides. Don't use these :) Its easier to use the red numbers in the top-left corner of the screen (if they're not there, use the '~' key to bring them up)

The bombsight

How to Do stuff

Flight To Target

Step Description
Flight To Target
  • Once you're up in the air (assuming the pilot got you there). Its your job to stay good and vigalant and keep the EA off the plane. Use the dorsal and belly gunners often, to scan the skies on the planes high and low 6.
  • NOTE: In order to use the nose-gunner, you must un-deploy the bombadier ('D' key by default). You can rotate the nose cone using the 'O' key in order to cover the high 12 of the bomber.
  • 'NOTHER NOTE:: You must also 'O'pen the dorsal gunner before you can move it around. Use your View keys to look up ahead of the plane if you need to.
  • Keep an eye on the rest of the bomber group and the direction the plane is headed, you have a much better ability to keep an eye on them than the pilot does, as you can switch around to your various views.

Setting Altitude

Rarely is the height of the actual target at sea-level (which is the height your altimiter shows in the plane). In order to bomb accuratley, the height of the target above sea-level must be known. Once you know this, and the altitulde that you will be bombing from, the setting for your sights are as follows,

Correct Setting = (Plane Altitude above sea-level) - (Target Altitude above sea-level)
The following diagram illustrates why..
Why we use those settings

Lining Up Target

Step Description
Long Distance
  • When you’re bombing, maintaining communication with the pilot is essential.
  • Communicate with the pilot and find out whether or not he is speeding up or slowing down. Make sure you tell him when you’re setting up the bombsites, so that he knows to hold the plane steady.
  • First of all, once the target is in sight, align the bombsight on top of the target. You’ll want to hold it here (on top of the target) until the pilot indicates that he’s in line with the target.
    Then you’re going to have to (quickly) re-center our bombsights. If you don’t then you won’t have any way to tell when you’re really supposed to drop the bomb.
    If the pilot lined up with the target correctly, your left-right alignment of the bombsight should be correct already, all you should have to change is the forward-back alignment.
  • Once the target is under the bombsights again, let loose with all you’ve got!
    TIP: By hitting your 'B' key and your joystick alternate fire (default button 2) one after another, you can drop bombs much faster than simply hitting one or the other. This is especially important if you're on an RDP bombing mission, as the target will be very small.
  • You might want to start a few seconds early, in order to ‘walk’ the bombs onto the target, and get nice bomb coverage. (only do this if you're NOT on an RDP mission, otherwise you'll just miss the factory :))
  • The most important thing here is to get the bombsight re-centered in time. Otherwise you will not be dropping at the correct time. If necessary, inform the pilot that you’ll need to take another run at it.

Here's a couple screenshots illustrate how changing the alignment of the bombsight affects the actual direction the bomsight is pointing:

The first diagram shows how moving the sight from side to side affects the actual direction the bomsight shows. You MUST recenter the bomsight in order to get the correct placement of your ordinance. Image of how to line up target

This shows how moving the bombsight forward and backwards affects the direction the bombsight points ahead or behind the plane. This is the MOST important sight to recenter, or you will drop the bombs either prematurely or too late.
Line up the target on the red line

Here's a shot of how the target (lined up in the above image) looks through the bombsight for two different settings (forward and centered)

Image of the previous lineup through bombsght
Image of the previous lineup through bombsght

Return Flight

Step Description
Getting Youself Home
  • Keep an eye on the bombs after drop if you can. The pilot would love to know how close you got to hitting the target!.
  • This is normally the point where your tail gunning skills get a chance to shine :). Keep any EA off the planes tail, and keep communication with the pilot about any dangers. Its important that you give good directions to the EA, so that the pilot can take the appropriate evasive action.