Target : Invisible (1945)

[Music] [Music] it's early morning at a b29 base in the Marianas the big bombers are getting ready for a mission and the men are getting ready in the essentials The Briefing differs little from others there's a Target that will be bombed they will proceed to this point in space above the Earth drop their bombs and return without ever seeing the target these are the instruction CS the men are ready for the [Music] [Music] takeoff 6 hours a loft the huge armade of super fors has spanned over 1,000 miles of trackless Waters the weather Bears out the forecast clouds heavy overcast all the way to the Target at 23,000 ft they're above it below and Beyond lies the Japanese Mainland and somewhere beyond that the target if the enemy took comfort in the thought that the Bombadier sees nothing more than this they were living in a Fool's Paradise for at a calculated instant tons of high explosives and yes even the atomic bomb would be sent away to the Target aimed by the miracle of radar before you now is the radar scope a small circular screen giving x-ray like Vision to the mysterious 11th member of the crew the radar operator until recently we've known little of what he does and even l about the instruments he uses basically radar equipment consists of a radio transmitter and receiver the transmitter sends a radio beam earthward if it strikes water the beam is not reflected the receiver picks up nothing and the scope appears dark as it is now over the Pacific Ocean but if the beam strikes a solid object such as land it's reflected and shows light on the scope watch something's coming in now at the upper left adjusting the receiver control sharpens the picture there they are two islands both with mountains on them that should make them easy to identify according to the charts only two islands of this shape and Contour lie off the southern coast of honu the little one coima the other haima two tiny dots on the face of the globe point the way for a cargo of d [Music] ruction 7 hours 10 minutes elapse time almost a full day's work for most but to the crews a mission less than half swe it out the picture on the scope warns of Entry to the critical Zone the return shows a large land mass Japanese Coast over 100 miles of it you see that bright spot at the top top of the peninsula not exactly the picture in travel folders but that's beautiful fujiama Mount Fuji Nature's Wonder the tourist Delight now a beacon inviting disaster a reference point for final calculations Bader this is radar operator over this is Bader go ahead the wind is from 2 68° at 138 mph round speed on the bomb Run 3 94 mph data taken from the electronic Wonder instruments is converted to Precision aiming pinpoint bombing 17° right radar operator this is Bombadier over go ahead Bombadier the sight set up we're ready to bomb the bomb run begins with a turn directly over fujiama when the bright spot that is Fuji touches the black line the instructions are pilot start one quarter needle with with turn rolling out on the heading of 31° Roger Bomer open Bombay doors after turn [Music] Roger the moment for decision has arrived the moment when the target must be single out from hundreds of other invisible targets Coastline with a large city a peninsula jutting out in a bay the city Tokyo this is the general Target area Northwest of Tokyo lies the specific Target the kyushi aircraft Factory at Koo a flick of the switch isolates the target image and here it is one tiny Speck of light the focal point for hundreds of giant bombers for a th000 tons of bombs pilot correct 9° right rer ready on 70° [Music] ready [Music] Mark Mark at the split second before the bombs are released the radar operator sees this bombs away [Music] and this is what the sees his cities his factories in Ruins