Film footage

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Sharps '63

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Does anyone besides me remember WWII film footage taken from the bridge of a ship undergoing aerial attack by twin engine aircraft, I believe Beaufighters?
In the footage, one of the attacking aircraft is hit aft of the wings, the fuselage separates and the centre section forward does an immediate back flip into the water.

Quite dramatic!
 
Nope, not quite. The aircraft in question was making a low pass beside a ship when it came apart (lucky hit from an AA gun?) and broke apart aft of the wings, flipping over in the blink of an eye with the engines wide open.
 
The footage was taken during American trials of the Barnes Wallis bouncing bombs that was made famous for breaching German dams. Looks like they where crazy low and you can see the "bouncing bomb" bounce off the water surface and through the aircraft which then crashed.
 
IIRC the trick that was used to ensure the Lancasters released the bombs at the critically correct height was to have two searchlights that were mounted at a specific angle - one each on a wing - when the correct altitude was reached for the bomb release the searchlights beams would converge in a figure "8" pattern on the reservoir water. Of course this would be very hard to see if the US trials were performed in daylight (!!??) ... the aircraft during Operation Chastise used a similarly elegantly simple solution to ensure they released at the correct distance - it was a "Y" shaped wooden aiming device with pins at the ends of the open part of the "Y" ... when the pins lined up with the towers (ie Moehne Dam) as they approached at the proper (LOW) level (all carefully calculated based on known measurements) they knew they were at the correct lateral 'range" from the target for a release.
 
Wingco Guy Gibson flew several passes over the Mohne See towards the dam, trying to draw away AA fire from the bomber that was actually making the run at the time. He had all his lights on, including the lights you mention. I believe that they were mounted fore and aft, focused to coincide at the desired height.

There was a recent doc where some red neck transport pilots with a DC 6 duplicated the run, dropping a drum they rigged with a spinning mechanism. It was a real trick to fly such a large aircraft so low and so precisely, even without someone shooting at you!

Water was held back by a coffer dam, a real engineering feat in itself. After several failures, they made a successful drop, and a fixed charge was detonated to signify the success of the operation.
 
Sharps '63 said:
Wingco Guy Gibson flew several passes over the Mohne See towards the dam, trying to draw away AA fire from the bomber that was actually making the run at the time. He had all his lights on, including the lights you mention. I believe that they were mounted fore and aft, focused to coincide at the desired height.

There was a recent doc where some red neck transport pilots with a DC 6 duplicated the run, dropping a drum they rigged with a spinning mechanism. It was a real trick to fly such a large aircraft so low and so precisely, even without someone shooting at you!

Water was held back by a coffer dam, a real engineering feat in itself. After several failures, they made a successful drop, and a fixed charge was detonated to signify the success of the operation.
Click to expand...

"I believe that they were mounted fore and aft, focused to coincide at the desired height"...yes!! you are absolutely correct! thanks for the reminder ... I have forgotten the book (and the movie) details.

As a kid I visited the 3 dams (as I think you also did and previously mentioned) it was a remarkable bit of flying and bravery given the gun positions AND the fact that after the first unsuccessful bombing run it was quite apparent to the German AA crews exactly how the "show" was going to unfold - and where they had to train their guns!

OTOH maybe the AA crews were completely pre-occupied and spell bound watching exactly what the bombers were attempting to do ... must have been quite the sight!
 
The A 26 video appears to be over land. It was likely an American trial of a Highball bomb. They were a development from the Chastise bomb for anti-shipping. The Mossies that were used initially used an air turbine to drive a spinning mechanism for the bomb. The bomb bay on a Mk IV was modified to carry 2 bombs. The bombs had a pressure pistol to detonate at a predetermined depth like a depth charge.

I recall an account of American B 25s attacking Japanese shipping dropping standard 500 pounders by skipping them on the water in high speed low level releases.
 
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I neglected to mention that the raid was led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson [VC], a most important detail. They don't hand out those gongs for just showing up.

I've walked across the Mohne Dam several times and in the town of Korbecke below it that was wiped out by the flood. There were two other dams that were hit on the same raid, one at the Sorpe See. Can't recall the name of the other.

Net effect on the Ruhr industrial complex was a three week slow down in war material production. But the impact of the raid had a devastating effect on civilian morale as they had been told by Hitler earlier that not a bomb would fall on Germany. Now they were not safe anywhere.
 
The other (3rd) was the Edersee dam


It must have been incredible to watch those aircraft swinging onto the reservoir at low altitude and running towards the dam with lights on...and flying into the AA guns. Then climbing at maximum power after they let their bomb go. It would be like watching one player from the visiting team set up and score a perfect goal in a soccer game!
 
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Ganderite said:
Lancaster sounds


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The Germans did recover one intact bomb ("Upkeep") when one of the Lancasters crashed after striking high tension cables - pretty graphic demonstration of the altitude these guys were flying - at night!!

The "target" (in this case the Mohnesee) as it appeared to the RAF crews;
images
not shown are the German gun positions on either side of the reservoir guarding the approach.

..."Wallis had specified that the bomb must be dropped at "precisely" 60 feet (18 m) above the water and 232 miles per hour (373 km/h) groundspeed, with back-spin at 500 rpm: the bomb "bounced seven times over some 800 yards, sank and detonated".[SUP][16]" from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouncing_bomb[/SUP]
 
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Nice! Not much of a dam by North American standards. The flak towers are now observation points. I think that several hits were made before the dam started to crack and fail.
 
They used a DC-4 from Buffalo air to use as the bomber. The dam and bomb dropping was part of the Ice Pilots NWT. If you want to see dc-3s, dc-4s still flying in commercial purposes, check that show out.

Sharps '63 said:
Wingco Guy Gibson flew several passes over the Mohne See towards the dam, trying to draw away AA fire from the bomber that was actually making the run at the time. He had all his lights on, including the lights you mention. I believe that they were mounted fore and aft, focused to coincide at the desired height.

There was a recent doc where some red neck transport pilots with a DC 6 duplicated the run, dropping a drum they rigged with a spinning mechanism. It was a real trick to fly such a large aircraft so low and so precisely, even without someone shooting at you!

Water was held back by a coffer dam, a real engineering feat in itself. After several failures, they made a successful drop, and a fixed charge was detonated to signify the success of the operation.
Click to expand...
 
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