Wurtsmith Air Museum Displays Norden Bombsight
One of Oscoda’s best attractions is the Wurtsmith Air Museum just outside of town on F-41. Visitors and veterans that are history buffs won’t be disappointed by the three hangars containing artifacts and memorabilia from the military as well as several displays of aircraft including a helicopter and T-33 Jet Trainer. Women in aviation are also on display at the museum’s exhibits as well as conflicts and wars from the last hundred or so years. The museum’s gift shop includes posters, souvenirs, books, models, and much more. Even though Wurtsmith is worth the time to visit all year long, its current exhibit displaying a historic “Norden Bombsight” is an interesting and rare piece of not-so-well-known American history that changed the world forever.
As American troops successfully carried out their “island hopping” strategy to take back the Pacific from the Empire of Japan, military leaders awaited the eventual siege of Japan’s home island. In New Mexico, the brightest scientists on the planet were working on an alternative: to harness nuclear energy as a military weapon unlike any other.
In early August, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Only 45 seconds beforehand, the Norden Bombsight had been used in the Enola Gay to line up the release of the bomb over Hiroshima’s famous T-shaped bridge.
The Wurtsmith Air Museum has a temporary exhibit on display of the Norden Bombsight. Inside the Enola Gay, carrying Little Man, two people operated the Norden Bombsight, relaying the necessary movements of the plane before dropping Little Man from the hatch. The Norden Bombsight told them exactly when to do that. In Hiroshima, the atomic bomb was detonated a few hundred feet in the air over the famous T-shaped bridge at the northern point of the city’s downtown island.
The technology may seem trivial today, with autopilot, drones, and satellites, but in 1945, the Norden Bombsight was something that had never been seen before. It enabled high altitude, precise bombing which allowed the United States to drop the bombs and win World War II without conducting a costly invasion of the Japanese home islands. While the machine was highly publicized to boost morale, its details were kept highly classified and regarded as one of the military’s most important secrets.
Visit the Wurtsmith Air Museum’s website for more information on current exhibits.
