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Lancaster!

Old Crow said:
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td class="main">Most famous for its daylight precision bombing "Dam Buster" raids, codenamed Operation Chastise, on the dams of the Ruhr Valley, the Lancaster excelled at night bombing. </td></tr><tr><td>
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The Dambuster raid was carried out in daylight ?? Wow, that level of meticulous research really inspires confidence!
 
lanky really is something special her night raids and daylight raids carried the biggest conventional bomb of WW2 the 22,000lb 'Grand Slam'
British_Grand_Slam_bomb.jpg


was used against U-Boat pens, the bomb itself would accelerate to near sonic speeds 320m/s and bury itself, the resultand explosion underground caused a cavern and the target subsided into this cavern, kinda like liquifaction with an earthquake, Targets engaged with Grand slam were: Biefield Viaduct, Arnsberg Viaduct, Vlotho Bridge, Valentine Submarine pens and Hamburg U-Boat Shelters, the last 2 without incurring a loss and rendering them unusable...

As i said Lanky is quite some aircraft, those 4 merlins make a noise that is strangely alluring, it has style it has grace it's an ugly beast but it's the Lanky none-the-less, a glorious piece of British engineering. To dodge the search lights if illuminated early in the war Lancaster pilots were told to Dive & Corkscrewquite sme manouver for a bomber :icon_lol:
 
The Earthquake bomb - which the Special Lancs could carry two of - was the primary Bunker (and occasional Pocket Battleship) Busting weapon that 617Sqn used. They also tried to hit the Dortmund-Ems Canal a number of times and actually hit the bank once, crippling transport links along the Ruhr valley for an extended period.
 
The Lanky B1 special could only carry 1 grand slam.... front turret was removed to save weight :icon_lol:

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note the lack of a bomb bay :icon_lol:

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there was a slightly smaller bomb used, (this is the one you refer to Ian) the 12,000lb tallboy

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Tallboy was used Against the Tirpitz...
 
and mid upper turrent.

The USAAF didnt have true heavies until after the war, and RAF took and gave 'heavy bomber' a whole new meaning :ernae:
 
well and truly a new meaning :icon_lol: Lanky is my favourite warbird, a couple times i've considered adding its silhouette next to 'Spooky' on my shoulder (Spooky is there to remind me of my life in Greece next to Larisa AB). the lanky well, it's just beautiful and everyone seems to know its silhouette... :icon_lol: she could take a heck of a beating and make it home :wiggle: i'd still love to see the lanky doing it's corkscrew :icon_lol:
 
Yes, it was the Tallboy that two could be carried, but the aircraft invariably took off overweight. There are a number of descriptions of operations where B.1 Specials carried two Tallboys (also referred to as "Earthquake bombs" because they had hardened noses and delayed fuses, specifically to penetrate the ground before exploding) in the various Dambusters books. As Smoothie says, they hit the foredeck of the Tirpitz with a Tallboy after ruling out an attack by 618 Squadron using mini Upkeep bombs dropped by Mosquitos, but there's still an open discussion about whether or not the ship had actually been scuttled by the time 617 hit it.
 
Those bombs were massive I have a photo of me standing next to one when I was a kid forgot where but they were huge, just imagine the bang it made, enough to sink a battleship and we did.. the Tirpitz with the Tallboy! An interesting fact is that Barnes Wallis designed them after the .50 cal bullet so that they would travel supersonically which they did once dropped!
 
yup then buried themselves, detonated underground gaused subsidance and a mini-earthquake bye bye whole street if one of them dropped anywhere nearby :icon_lol:
 
Where does this Lanky thing come from, only ever heard them refered to as Lanc or Lancaster is this a age thing ?
 
yup the bomb missed by about 120ft if i recall but still took 2 spans out, if it had been about 50 closer and within 70ft then that bridge would have lost a lot more of its structure :icon_lol:
 
Yep, but a week ago it was supposed to be released today. Another "soon" story. I am sure it will be well worth the wait. :applause:
 
Paul K said:
No Stirling at Cosford ( or anywhere else unfortunately ). Its their Lincoln thats supposed to be haunted.

For our transatlantic chums who don't know what a Lincoln is, think Lancaster on steroids.
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I've heard this haunting story too. went to Cosford a couple of months ago, mind you it was quite believable. That Lincoln doesn't half creep me out. An old boy visiting the musuem claimed to see a pilot's face looking down at him from the nose section, and when a member of staff investigated, no one was found to be onboard. Also a couple of years ago some staff left a tape recorder on the Lincoln overnight, and in the morning listened to the sounds of muffled voices and merlin engines, although the hangar is dead quiet at night....:monkies:

Also any one been to Hendon???? their lancaster is so freaky ("S for Sugar") is the oldest lancaster in the world and two crew lost their lives onboard in 1943, I mean c'mon!
 
Rowdy, if such spooky goings-on intrigue you, google RAF Bircham Newton and have a read through what it coughs up. Long before your time, there was a BBC radio broadcaster named Jack de Manio who investigated the place and made recordings inside the squash courts there. I've never heard them, but I have talked with a man who worked at Bircham Newton after it became a training centre for the Construction Industry Training Board, and he did confirm that there had been some very odd things happen in the building.
 
Paul K said:
The Dambuster raid was carried out in daylight ?? Wow, that level of meticulous research really inspires confidence!
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Actually, it was a night raid and the text at First Class Simulations now just states "Most famous for its precision bombing "Dam Buster" raids"


I have an audio cassette from the 1980's which has, on one side, "The Haunting of Bircham Newton Aerodrome". Apart from the narration there are several unusual sounds which are supposed to be from recordings made in several of the then empty buildings.

A.D.
 
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