Crossword clues for bombardier
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bombardier \Bom`bar*dier"\, n. [F. bombardier.] (Mil.)
One who used or managed a bombard; an artilleryman; a gunner. [Archaic]
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A noncommissioned officer in the British artillery.
Bombardier beetle (Zo["o]l.), a kind of beetle ( Brachinus crepitans), so called because, when disturbed, it makes an explosive discharge of a pungent and acrid vapor from its anal glands. The name is applied to other related species, as the Brachinus displosor, which can produce ten or twelve explosions successively. The common American species is Brachinus fumans.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1550s, soldier with a bombard, from French bombardier, from bombard (see bombard (n.)). In 17c.-18c. of soldiers who manned artillery (especially mortars and howitzers); meaning "one who aims the bombs in an aircraft" is attested 1932, American English.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context North America English) A bomber crew member who sights and releases bombs. 2 (context Canada Britain English) A non-commissioned officer rank in artillery, equivalent to corporal. Abbreviated Bdr. 3 An artilleryman; a gunner. 4 (context entomology English) A bombardier beetle.
WordNet
n. a noncommissioned officer in the British artillery
the member of a bomber crew responsible for using the bombsight and releasing the bombs on the target
Wikipedia
Bombardier may refer to:
Russian Bombardier (left) and Feuerwerker (right) (1812).]] Bombardier is a military rank that has existed since the 16th century in artillery regiments of various armies, such as in the British Army and the Royal Prussian Army, equivalent to the infantry rank of corporal. The rank of lance-bombardier is the artillery counterpart of lance-corporal.
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A bombardier or bomb aimer was the crew member of a bomber aircraft responsible for the targeting of aerial bombs. "Bomb aimer" was the preferred term in the military forces of the Commonwealth, while "bombardier" (from the French word for "bomb thrower" and similar in meaning to " grenadier") was the equivalent position in the United States Armed Forces.
In many planes, the bombardier took control of the airplane during the bombing run, using a bombsight such as the Norden bombsight which was connected to the autopilot of the plane. Often stationed in the extreme front of the aircraft, on the way to the target and after releasing the bombs, he could also serve as the front gunner in aircraft that had a front turret.
In the latter part of the 20th century, the title of bombardier fell into disuse, due largely to changes in technology, emanating from the replacement of this manual function with the development of computerized technology and smart bombs, that has given rise to terms like weapons systems officer or combat systems officer (CSO) to describe the modern role. The equivalent in the US Navy and US Marine Corps is the Naval Flight Officer.
In the United States, the position of bombardier was originally held by a sergeant, but they were commissioned as officers in 1941. In the Commonwealth, a bomb aimer could be an officer or (more frequently) a senior non-commissioned officer (sergeant or flight sergeant) or warrant officer; like wireless operators, air engineers and air gunners, all officer bomb aimers were commissioned from the ranks after non-commissioned aircrew service, unlike pilots and navigators who could join as commissioned officers.
During World War II, US Army Air Forces bombardiers were recognized with the award of the Bombardier Badge. With the establishment of an independent US Air Force in 1947, USAF bombardiers were awarded the wings known as the Navigator badge, now known as the Combat Systems Officer badge. Commonwealth bomb aimers wore a single-wing aircrew brevet with the letter "B".
The aircraft of the United Kingdom's V bomber force carried two navigators, one of whom acted as bomb aimer, although having the official title of "Navigator Radar".
Bombardier is a 1943 film war drama about the training program for bombardiers of the United States Army Air Forces. The film stars Pat O'Brien and Randolph Scott. Bombardier was nominated for an Academy Award in 1944 for the special effects used in the film. It was largely filmed at Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico, site of the first bombardier training school.
The film follows the training of six bombardier candidates, seen through the differences between the two USAAF pilots in charge of their training over the efficacy of precision bombing.
Brigadier General Eugene L. Eubank, commander of the first heavy bombardment group of the U.S. Army Air Forces to see combat in World War II, introduces the film with the statement:
I want you to know about a new kind of American soldier, the most important of all our fighting men today. He is most important because upon him, finally, depends the success of any mission in which he participates. The greatest bombing plane in the world, with its combat crew, takes him into battle, through weather, through enemy opposition, just so he may have 30 seconds over the target. In those 30 seconds, he must vindicate the greatest responsibility ever placed upon an individual soldier in line of duty. I want you to know about him, and about those who had the faith and vision and foresight to bring him into being, to fit him for his task, long months before our war began.
Usage examples of "bombardier".
The bombardier of each aircraft had to go down into the bomb bay and, walking along the narrow catwalk between the bombs and holding his portable oxygen bottle in one hand, pull out the arming pins of his bombs.
His bombardier released their ten 5oo-lb bombs on two merchant ships seen in the mouth of the River Elbe.
The lead plane soon reached the area recently bombed by the preceding bombers but the bombardier had no time to study his maps which would have shown what useful targets there might be here.
Shackley ordered his bombardier to retain his bomb-load and close the bomb doors and he flew on, hoping to catch up with his wing at the reassembly point east of Hamburg and hoping, too, to find some other target to bomb during the return flight to the German coast.
He stood in the door and looked at the gray ocean, thinking about the bombardier and watery death.
Havermeyer was a lead bombardier who never took evasive action going in to the target and thereby increased the danger of all the men who flew in the same formation with him.
Havermeyer was the best damned bombardier they had, but he flew straight and level all the way from the I.
Yossarian was a lead bombardier who had been demoted because he no longer gave a damn whether he missed or not.
One of the surprising things always was the sense of calm and utter silence, broken only by the test rounds fired from the machine guns, by an occasional toneless, terse remark over the intercom, and, at last, by the sobering pronouncement of the bombardier in each plane that they were at the I.
Yossarian that they bore him no animosity, they even assigned him to fly lead bombardier with McWatt in the first formation when they went back to Bologna the next day.
So had the tampering with the bomb line before the mission to Bologna and the seven-day delay in destroying the bridge at Ferrara, even though destroying the bridge at Ferrara finally, he remembered with glee, had been a real feather in his cap, although losing a plane there the second time around, he recalled in dejection, had been another black eye, even though he had won another real feather in his cap by getting a medal approved for the bombardier who had gotten him the real black eye in the first place by going around over the target twice.
McWatt, and he was not even safe with McWatt, who loved flying too much and went buzzing boldly inches off the ground with Yossarian in the nose on the way back from the training flight to break in the new bombardier in the whole replacement crew Colonel Cathcart had obtained after Orr was lost.
McWatt winked at him reassuringly as he climbed down from the plane and joshed hospitably with the credulous new pilot and bombardier during the jeep ride back to the squadron, although he did not address a word to Yossarian until all four had returned their parachutes and separated and the two of them were walking side by side toward their own row of tents.
He was the best bombardier in the squadron, and he and Robert had become fast friends.
Unlike the bombardier beetles, they seemed to have no obvious form of communication.