Oops

[Pete7]

You're right. It was aimed badly, failed to do anything useful, and after 80 years all that was left was a big hole in the water.

That one perhaps, but they did drop one on the Tirpitz with spectacular results. We shouldn't take away anything from the crew the risk they would have been under flying over enemy territory with that thing slung underneath.

 

[johnalison]

That one perhaps, but they did drop one on the Tirpitz with spectacular results. We shouldn't take away anything from the crew the risk they would have been under flying over enemy territory with that thing slung underneath.

I visited the memorial to the crashed Lancaster deep in the woods near Karsobor, the village close to the explosion. It consists of a Lanc tail part and a plaque. There were fresh flowers when I went and no-one within a mile or two. I don't know if the plane was lost on the same raid, probably not as I think Stettin was also a common target.

 

[newtothis]

That one perhaps, but they did drop one on the Tirpitz with spectacular results. We shouldn't take away anything from the crew the risk they would have been under flying over enemy territory with that thing slung underneath.

I wasn't taking anything away from the aircrew. I was taking the mickey out of the comedy crew that are running the country now.

 

[JumbleDuck]

That one perhaps, but they did drop one on the Tirpitz with spectacular results. We shouldn't take away anything from the crew the risk they would have been under flying over enemy territory with that thing slung underneath.

Apparently Tallboys were the only bombs which were brought back from aborted missions. They cost so much to make that it was considered worth the risk to crewmen not to dump them in the North Sea, as was done with other leftovers.

 

[mjcoon]

Apparently Tallboys were the only bombs which were brought back from aborted missions. They cost so much to make that it was considered worth the risk to crewmen not to dump them in the North Sea, as was done with other leftovers.

And presumably the risk at home base to land while carrying it/them... Beefed up undercarriage?

 

[Daedelus]

I think they were designed to penetrate concrete submarine pens and produce an earthquake type explosion when they were well deep into the structure, hence why they did well against the Tirpitz, they went through the armour to explode. It's surprising that they ever recovered this one if it fell into earth as it would have penetrated a fair old way.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I think they were designed to penetrate concrete submarine pens and produce an earthquake type explosion when they were well deep into the structure, hence why they did well against the Tirpitz, they went through the armour to explode. It's surprising that they ever recovered this one if it fell into earth as it would have penetrated a fair old way.

Barnes-Wallis's idea was that if you can't hit the target - which, except by accident, bombers couldn't - you might as well make a miss effective. The idea of the Tallboy (and later the Grand Slam) was that it penetrated deeply into the ground, waited a bit (30 seconds to 30 minutes) and then went off. The resulting shockwave, even if it didn't bring the target down, was likely to damage its foundations enough to render it unusable.

Penetrating concrete submarine pens was a secondary use, thought up a bit later, In those cases it went through the roofs and then exploded like any other bomb - the earthquake aspect wasn't used.