Blind Bombing

How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in World War II

By Norman Fine

National Prize Winner, 2020 IPPY Awards

planes with black smoke from bombing oil refineries
B-17 heavy bomber formations head home after a mission to Hamburg shortly before D-Day. The black smudges boiling up through the cloud cover are burning oil storage tanks. Although targets were hidden by overcast skies 70- 80% of the time, the plane leading the bomber wing was equipped with microwave radar. By comparing images on his radar scope to navigational maps, the radar operator located the target area and dropped the first bombs and marker flares to show the planes behind where to release their bombs.

About the Book

A Historical Must-Have Read

The Unknown Story of the Secret Invention that won the Battle of the Atlantic and went on to Rescue D-Day

Blind Bombing: How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in World War II was published in 2019 by Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. It tells a little-known story that has been mostly ignored by popular historians writing for a general readership.

In November 1939, on the very eve of the war, a top-secret gadget was invented that improved the performance of the primitive radar then known to all the warring nations by nearly a thousand-fold! This new gadget, about the size of a hockey puck, transformed radar from a cumbersome, fixed defensive tool to a precise, mobile offensive weapon of war. Only the Allies had it, and the enemy was soon baffled by their losses.

The secret gadget, called a cavity magnetron, was the single most influential new invention in winning the war in Europe.

Written for a non-technical readership, Blind Bombing offers a new perspective in understanding World War II’s progress in Europe from milestone to milestone, overcoming obstacle after obstacle.

Praise for Blind Bombing

Silver Medalist in World History
2020 Independent Publishers Book Awards (IPPY)

Winner of the silver medal for World History in the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Fine’s book captures the technological innovation and inventions that changed the very nature of combat.

About the Author

With Norman Fine

Norman Fine is a retired electronics engineer, founder of a high-tech company, editor and publisher of an annual engineering design guide series in the 1990s, and author of four books and hundreds of articles on horse sport published in the U.S. and Britain.

Norman Fine, Author of Blind Bombing, at a speaking engagement

From the Blog

planes with black smoke from bombing oil refineries

Eighth Air Force News Article

The Eight Air Force Historical Society just published an article of mine in the September 2023 issue of Eighth Air Force News. While all members …

Read More
Norman Fine, Author of Blind Bombing, at a speaking engagement

How I Came to Write Blind Bombing

Most readers of World War II histories are by now familiar with the many breakthrough and turning point stories that emerged after those six years of conflict, 1939-1945.

Read More
Blind Bombing Book Cover

Purchase Your Copy of Blind Bombing Today!

Immerse yourself in the rich and complete history of how Microwave Radar won the Battle of the Atlantic and rescued D-Day.

Blind Bombing is Fine’s thoughtful and thoroughly researched piece on the development of an overlooked invention that helped save Britain, then set the stage for D-Day in just five months. This book should be on the bucket list of anyone interested in understanding how World War II was won.

Call to order from the publisher directly. Use code 6AF19 and pay just $17.97 for the Hardcover edition.