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#111
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Subject: #1 Jet of World War II
From: "Geoffrey Sinclair" Date: 7/21/03 10:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time No, none of the 9 diagrams showing different bomb bay load configurations includes one for napalm, not even incendiaries are shown, just HE and AP bombs. I presume the napalm is listed under class C-Fire in the USAAF statistical digest, 12,200 used, they came in 50, 75, 100 to 110 and 150 to 165 gallon sizes. Geoffrey Sinclair Remove the nb for email. I remember the morning we flew that Nepalm mission. They scared the **** out of us.We never heard of jellied gasoline and we were instructed that it was a very dangerous load and under no circuimstances were we to bring it back. If it hung up in the bombays and we couldn't salvo it, we were to bail out rather than try to land with it. Felt good to get the green bombay light at bombs away, feel Willie lift, and get Griego's report that the bombay was clear... and home we went to Florennes. Never so glad to get rid of a bomb load in my life. Arthur Kramer Visit my WW II B-26 website at: http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer |
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On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 10:19:11 GMT, Guy Alcala
wrote: The USAAF statistical digest contradicts the Freeman figures, table 138, bombs dropped by type of bomb 1943 to 1945 in the war against Germany says the USAAF did not use the 300 pound bomb in Europe from 1 January 1943 onward and only 712 600 pound bombs, all in 1943. I wonder what that "350" lb. bomb used in 1945 (only 12) was; possibly a typo. I suspect Freeman may be right in the case of the 300 lbers. IIRR there's a late 1943 or early '44 issue of "Impact" which describes 8th AF B-26 missions in 1943, and clearly states the number of 300 lb. bombs dropped on the target (might have been one of the missions to the Le Trait shipyards. I'll have to get to the library to find the details). The 300 lb bomb appears in "Impact" a few times in 1943*, but seems to vanish in 1944. [* e.g. "Littorio Yards and Airfield", July 1943, "Mediums over West Europe", Merville on 15th September] Gavin Bailey -- "...this level of misinformation suggests some Americans may be avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance." - 'Poll shows errors in beliefs on Iraq, 9/11' The Charlotte Observer, 20th June 2003 |
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#116
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Geoffrey Sinclair wrote:
This will probably appear out of place thanks to a poorly performing local news server. Guy Alcala wrote in message .. . Geoffrey Sinclair wrote: In the war diary Freeman usually gives the types of bombs dropped until the end of 1943, a quick skim indicates the heavies last used them on 9 September 1943 Last used which? 300 pound bombs, used on strikes on French airfields on that date by the B-24s of 44th, 93rd, 389th and 392nd groups. Seems about right. Checking the relevant issues of "Impact," the last dates I could find mentioned for heavy use of 300 lbers. were B-17 raids on 13/5/43 on the Potez factory at Meaulte (88 B-17s dropped 863 - 500 lb. and 16 - 300 lb.), and on 16/8/43 on Le Bourget (2,655 - 300 lbers dropped). snip B-26 8th Sup. Command to 9th AF transfer info The USAAF statistical digest contradicts the Freeman figures, table 138, bombs dropped by type of bomb 1943 to 1945 in the war against Germany says the USAAF did not use the 300 pound bomb in Europe from 1 January 1943 onward and only 712 600 pound bombs, all in 1943. I wonder what that "350" lb. bomb used in 1945 (only 12) was; possibly a typo. I suspect Freeman may be right in the case of the 300 lbers. IIRR there's a late 1943 or early '44 issue of "Impact" which describes 8th AF B-26 missions in 1943, and clearly states the number of 300 lb. bombs dropped on the target (might have been one of the missions to the Le Trait shipyards. I'll have to get to the library to find the details). Then again, IIRR the "300 lb. bomb" weighed less than 300 lb. while the "250 lb. bomb" weighed more than 250 lb., so maybe the two types were combined in the table. Freeman notes for the 300 pound M31 "the average type weights differed from the classification by as much as 40 pounds" So if this was downwards the 300 pounds becomes 260 pounds. Given the info about B-26 and B-24 300 lber use you give above, the B-17 use of same mentioned in "Impact" and the B-26 comments also from Impact, viz, 4/9/43, Lille, 33 B-26 dropped 330 - 300 lb. bombs. 15/9/43, Merville 34 B-26 dropped 339 - 300 lb. bombs (btw, on the Le Trait mission I was thinking of, 33 B-26s dropped 160 - 500 lb. bombs) The statistical digest table definitely appears to be in error. Why the difference in weight? Change in explosive or case or just a classification decision, the bomb never was 300 pounds? In most cases, the latter. The same is true today. FWIW, in just about the only source I have which gives many of the U.S. WW2 bomb weights, the M57A1 250 lb. GP bomb is listed at 261 lb., incl. 132 lb. HE (Tritonal, Amatol, TNT). There were 1,122 Armour Piercing 1,600 pound bombs used, all in 1944. I'd sure like to know what the targets were for the AP bombs. I doubt they'd have enough penetration for sub pens, and I don't think we ever attacked armored ships with them (which is what they were designed for, by the Navy). Underground factories or maybe railway tunnels? Or simply a case of the supply situation becoming strained so they used what they had, there were supply problems in 1944 thanks to the tempo of operations. Freeman notes an attempt to use 1,600 pound bombs in 1942. Perhaps, but the small HE load and more difficult production of the AP bomb would make it the absolute bomb of last resort for any target susceptible to GP/MC/Incendiary bombs. In the case of the AP Bomb Mk. 1 (the 1,600 lber), out of a total weight of 1,590 lb. only 209 lb. is HE (Explosive D according to the only source I have which specifies the type of HE and the loading). The run-of the-mill M65A1 1,000 lb. GP bomb contains a nominal 572 lb. of HE (Tritonal, Amatol, TNT, or Composition B) out of a total nominal weight of 1,081 lb -- even the contemporary M64A1 500 lb. GP has more HE (262 lb. out of a total of 535 lb.). So you'd really need to be desperate to use an AP bomb on any target that was suitable for a GP/MC/HC bomb. I'm thinking maybe underground factories (or Crossbow sites like Watten?). In table 139, bombs dropped by type versus Japan HE bombs include 1,220 4,000 pound, all in 1945, 750 300 pound, 688 in 1945 (yes 5), 188,198 550 pound, yes 550. I'm guessing a typo in one or more of these tables. It worries me that the Statistical Digest seems to have major differences with other sources, thinks like fighter kill claims as well as types of bombs dropped. snip On the rare occasions when you see two official statistical sources in complete agreement, it's just about a sure thing that one of them is using the data from the other. Otherwise, there are always small differences in any large data set, owing to revised information, other sources, differing reporting standards, etc. Guy |
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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 10:19:11 GMT, Guy Alcala wrote: snip I wonder what that "350" lb. bomb used in 1945 (only 12) was; possibly a typo. I suspect Freeman may be right in the case of the 300 lbers. IIRR there's a late 1943 or early '44 issue of "Impact" which describes 8th AF B-26 missions in 1943, and clearly states the number of 300 lb. bombs dropped on the target (might have been one of the missions to the Le Trait shipyards. I'll have to get to the library to find the details). The 300 lb bomb appears in "Impact" a few times in 1943*, but seems to vanish in 1944. [* e.g. "Littorio Yards and Airfield", July 1943, "Mediums over West Europe", Merville on 15th September] Right, by '44 they seem to be using exclusively 250 lbers (which agrees with Art's memory that he never dropped a 300 lb. bomb). As I said previously, they appear to have used them up by the 3rd or 4th quarter of '43. From my memory of Freeman, they ran out of the 600 and 1,100 lb. bombs much earlier. Guy |
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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised wrote:
On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 01:04:53 -0400, (Peter Stickney) wrote: snip much [Lanc altitude on ops] While it doesn't get talked about much, the Lancaster was a fairly height-limited machine. The usual heights on a raid into Germany were between 15,000, and 20,000', depending on the amount of fuel burned, and the particuar airplane. By the winter of 1943-44, planned height bands for Lanc squadrons in 5 Group (which I have researched) were often 20-22,000 feet. The actual bombing height was rarely much over 20,000 feet, and often a lot lower, depending on weather and individual aircraft characteristics. On operational conditions, with a full load, and winter weather to deal with, they really did have difficulty getting over 20,000 feet. The most common bombing heights (excluding exceptions like the Peenemunde raid) seem to have been around 18,000 feet. Odd that you should mention that, as Middlebrook ("The Nuremberg Raid") says that a/c of all the Groups on the mission (with the exception of No. 1 GP; see below), whether Lanc or Halifax, were evenly assigned to one of four cruise heights -- 20, 21, 22, or 23 thousand feet. Naturally, some a/c were unable to get that high or anywhere close to it. One crew flying a very sick or tired Lanc couldn't struggle above 12,000 ft. but pressed on regardless; as it turned out it probably saved them on that mission because the fighters were up in the stream several thousand feet higher. A few a/c proved capable of much better when the Jagdwaffe got into the stream and the experienced crews decided that rigid adherence to assigned altitudes was stupid under the circumstances, and decided to get the hell out of it by climbing (and more than a few got rid of some bombs to lighten the a/c). One crew in a brand-new Halifax (like all Halifaxes by that time, carrying an all-incendiary and thus lighter load than the Lancs, to improve their altitude performance) was delighted to discover that they were able to get up to 26,000, and cruised happily along over the carnage a few thousand feet below. The exception was 1 Group, whose philosophy was to carry max. bomb loads on every mission, and who asked if they could fly at 13-16,000 feet to take advantage of some predicted cloud at that level. They were granted permission to do so until IIRR they reached the Rhine, at which point they were supposed to climb to the same heights that everyone else was (supposed) to be at. Unfortunately for them, the predicted cloud didn't show up. After shedding the 5-7 tons that it was delivering over the target, it would certainly have been able to return at a much higher altitude than it went in. Hence early jettisoning of bombs to reach bombing height, or climbing after bombing. This is the sort of real context that tends to get ignored in the interminable and ahistoric B-17 vs Lancaster nationalist posturing. One of the trade-offs for the Lanc's higher bombload was lower operating altitude [although this was also down to the different engine outputs at different hieghts]. In addition to the engine differences, there's the considerable difference in fixed weights (carried both to and from the target) due to extra crew, armor, guns, turrets etc., and the extra fuel required for formation assembly (an extra 1/2 to 2 hours before setting out), climb to higher cruise altitude and flying in formation (throttle jockeying). When Pete and I went through the exercise of turning the RAF heavies into day bombers a few years back, it was apparent that using Lancs in formation by day against the same targets that U.S. heavies were attacking, and with the same equipment, procedures and tactics, would require a decrease in bombload of between 2,000-5,000 lb. to reflect this, even assuming we refit them with two-stage Merlins to give them sufficient power at altitude (and those engines each weigh ca. 200 lb. more than the single stage jobs, which decreases the useful load for the same MTOW, or requires an increase in MTOW and thus a decrease in climb performance, higher accident rates, etc.). In short, design and equip them to do the same job and they'll do it with payloads within a couple of hundred pounds (either way) of each other. The whole Lanc vs. B-17 argument is just ludicrous. Guy |
#119
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Subject: #1 Jet of World War II
From: Guy Alcala Date: 7/23/03 3:39 AM Pacific Daylight Time Message-id: Right, by '44 they seem to be using exclusively 250 lbers (which agrees with Art's memory that he never dropped a 300 lb. bomb). As I said previously, they appear to have used them up by the 3rd or 4th quarter of '43. From my memory of Freeman, they ran out of the 600 and 1,100 lb. Sounds like 600 pound bombs and 1100 pound bombs are just typos. We carried 100, 250 amd 500 pounders. pounds. Also some missions where we carried incendiaries and one mission where we carried Jellied Gasoline (Nepalm). Also a few missions where we carried four 1,000 pounders.I seem to remember that the missions where we carried the 1,000 pounders were to the Ruhre Valley. Magdeburg? Arthur Kramer Visit my WW II B-26 website at: http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer |
#120
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Subject: #1 Jet of World War II
From: Guy Alcala Date: 7/23/03 4:40 AM Pacific Daylight Time Message-id: Hence early jettisoning of bombs to reach bombing height, or climbing after bombing. This is the sort o You mean they had to dump their bombs to get to bombing altitude?? Once they had no bombs what is the point of getting to bombing altitude??? After shedding the 5-7 tons that it was delivering over the target, it would certainly have been able to return at a much higher altitude than it went in. Only if they had enough fuel left to burn up in a climb. We rarely did. Arthur Kramer Visit my WW II B-26 website at: http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer |
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