MINUTE SHEET.
:>v aw) Ot.Jt.Joo^fe.Air nttnchA.
3 .ur. dron Leatser Stacey,Assistant A£r AiSfrSche'.
tf.202/-/39
"Noraen
bombsight"
330/38/U1
following our talk after lunch 'about the Norden
bombsight, I set down the data which I have so far come
across. The Cabinet attached great importance to
securing from the Americans the release of the bombsight.
Thus the Prime Minister wrote on the 2§th August. 1939' to
the President asking for its release - the efforts of the «ir
Attache to obtain this having failed.      The ^resident
replied release was not practicable. The suggestion by Mr.
Churchill to the ^resident in a message of 1*6th Oct.1 939
that Britain might give America* /vsdic if tamp cd\ild guarantee
rtS"secrecy, led to the idea of getting the Norden sight
released as a quid pro quo - which was thought might be
acceptable provided an adequate self-destroying cevice to
prevent the bombsijht falling into the hanos ofuthe enemy
were available.       The latter condition.seemed to be met in
December when the Ambassador was told (tel.860,C^c.5th)
that the Air Ministry had designed such a device*    But the
i«avy Dept. was opposed on the "ground that this the most
jealously guarded "secret might become available to the enemy.
The matter apparently rested until after Dunkirk.
On July 1stfcthe Ambassador put tv/o points to the President--
(1) that British" scientists had stabilised a British
automatic bombsight which it was claimed was as goad as the
Norden, if not better, but production vould take a long time;
(2) the efficiency of the new German high altitude bombing
tactics seemed to show that they had a sight similar to the
Norden. i'he file end^f on Chat point without any
indication of the ^resident s reply.
The point 1 am trying to establish was when the
bombsight was finally released to us. I suspect it must
have been in 1%1 because the Ambassador's weekly political
/summary
[OVER.
5
summary for 17th i»ept.19Ul  informed London that a spy
trial had revealed that the    jealously guarded secret/"
had in fact "been sold to the Germans in 1938/
If without too much trouble you could supply the
missing link in the story I would be most grateful.
jli am writing, as I told you, for the Cabinet History
Comm ttee the history of overseas supply and mo-old like to
make a reference to the bombsight as so much importance
v/as attached to it in 1939-UOJbut it is' difficult to use
the early .material v/ithout knowing and being able to make
a summary reference tot the end of the story.
H.Duncan Hall
June 15th 19U8
P.3.    Neither the Green nor White Registries appear
to have anything on the Norden bombsight for the
second half of 19U0 and the whole of 19U1.
ft
Mr. Duncan Hall,
Reference your query regarding the Norden bombsight,
I am afraid that I have drawn a blank.   Our file on this subject
was destroyed in November, 1947.
From the very meagre information that I can find on the
subject among our files, I think tfcat the sight must have been
given to us at the end of 1940 or the beginning of 1941.
I suggest that the people who can give you the correct
answer are undoubtedly the Air Ministry.
So sorry that I cannot be of further assistance.
H.A.F. Attache1
18th June, 1948. .
A-12/4/l.
RCJ/jkr