World War 2 Celestial Navigation

Dad's Flight Log from May 22, 1945. The Navigators' Log has many hand written reference notations in it. There are references to locations in Germany, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and England. These must have been for a quick reference to different flight areas. Also are listed some common words such as "Gigantic" and "Novelty". These must have been call names for missions. The "Air - Sea Rescue" Radio Channel was 665.

I don't know much about Celestial Navigation but Dad said he was constantly busy on missions. As soon as one heading was given, he began all over again to plot their location and give heading corrections to the pilot. Wind and Air Speed were the main variables. Dad said some of the high altitude cross winds were ferocious and more than once the Pilot would question him on his heading directions. The Pilot flew the plane, but the Navigator actually gave him all directions on where to go. Such a complicated, mathematical technique is now ancient history with GPS Systems in use today. No such thing as portable calculators back then.

These are some of the Navigation Aids Dad used during his Missions. Each clear disc has a different quadrant of the night skies. All based from sextant shots to Polaris, the North Star. I've read some sections of the Manuals shown below and it is a VERY complicated process to say the least. The Chronometer and Sextant were used in conjunction with these tools. The Navigator position on the B-24 had three plexiglass bubbles from which the Navigator could get his unobstucted sextant shots at the night skies. In his pre war civilian life Dad was an accountant so his knowledge of math and numbers were put to use.

These are some of the Navigation Instruction Manuals from Dads' service years. They are in as new condition and were marked as "restricted" information. I've tried to absorb some of the information but it quickly goes over my head......