In this day of GPS navigation, it's sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that getting lost was at one time almost as big a danger as enemy fighters. The venerable E6-B analog flight computer ("whiz wheel") is considered by some to be one of the most important weapons of WWII, because it made it so easy for a pilot to recalculate his navigation in flight.

I remember, many years ago, being surprised to learn that when making ferry flights across the Atlantic, the fighters flew with the bomber not just to protect it, but because the fighters didn't have the resources to navigate such long stretches over water, and literally were following the bomber's navigator.