Subject: Bomb in a pickle barrel from 10,000 feet
From: (OXMORON1)
Date: 9/2/2004 3:16 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

Ragnar asked:
So ALL 56 aircraft drop on the SAME bridge at low level? How do the last 51
planes even SEE the target with all the smoke and dust?



First, 10,000 feet is not low level.
Second, there should be almost no lag between the release of the first planes
through the release of the last in the flight.
Remember the aircraft are in a tight formation, not spread out all over the
countryside.

Besides defensive firepower, the purpose of the formation was to put as many
a/c over the same point as close to the same time as possible. "Point" being
a
relative term.

Art, How long and wide was the formation of one group of B-26s if everything
is
going correctly and each airplane was in it's proper place?
Also what is the fall time for a 500 pounder from 10,000 feet (I don't have
my
boks handy)?

Not that we ever bombed out a formation, but a twelve ship B-57 formation was
less than 160 yards x 120 yards. Also we weren't stacked in a "Box" which
should tighten up the pattern.

Rick Clark


To get a good idea of the area of impact of 56 Marauders each with a 4,000
pound load of 500 pounders for a total of about a quarter of a million pounds
of bombs going off at once, go to my website and check "The Raid on Brest"
"Hitting the French Coast", "Wurzburgh" and "The Airfield that wasn't there".
Bomb runs were all NORDEN from 10,000 feet at 180 IAS,



Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer