Practice bomb demolished pub toilet

[JimmAttrill]

I remember hearing about this - when did it happen, what aircraft was it of which squadron, where was the pub?
I think it was a Cranberry .... in the early '70s

[Pontius Navigator]

Three old ladies locked in the lavatory
Nobody knew they were there.

Three old ladies locked in the lavatory
12 Sqn knew they were there.

The photo caption said Flash in the Pan. I believe someone had a lucky escape having just vacated the toilet.
8
The pub was Prussian Queen near Theddlethorpe and it was a 12 Sqn Canberra from Binbrook in late 50s or 61/62.

I believe low scudding cloud gave the pub car park lights the same appearance as the Theddlethorpe target lights.

[Tengah Type]

I was on the Visual Bomb Aiming Course at Bomber Command Bombing School at RAF Lindholme in April 1963. We were told the story of what had happened there a few weeks before. Their version was : There had been a Staff Contiuation sortie which had an extra pilot on board, who was allowed by the instructor to drop a couple of bombs. The target was an old Tank Landing Craft, but on the night in question the electric lighting on the target was u/s. So, Gooseneck Flares were sited in each corner.

The run in to the target featured an arrow of electric lights pointing to the target. There was broken cloud cover in the area. Unfortunately the "Bomb Aimer" misidentified the lights on a nearby roundabout as the arrow, and when at the right time the "Target"appeared through the broken cloud he duly dropped a 28lb Smoke/Flash Bomb. The pub carpark was illuminated by a light in each corner giving the same visual appearence as the real target. The bomb was "Good" and struck one of two cubicles in the Ladies toilet. Fortunately the unoccupied one.

The letter of apology from OC BCBS included the phrase "It was a Flash in the Pan Occurence"

[SASless]

Lights to and on the target?

I reckon the Russians would not have been so obliging....would they?

[Barksdale Boy]

Are you sure it was a 28 lb practice bomb and not a 25 pounder. I thought 28lb PBs came in later. Perhaps PN could advise.

[binbrook]

IX(B) claimed it and may still have the relevant seat. And they were 25 pounders then.

[Tengah Type]

Yes they were 25lbs according to my logbook. It was a misprunt!!

[VX275]

There had been a Staff Contiuation sortie which had an extra pilot on board,
That's the type of phrase which over the years I've become wary of.
In my experience such sorties have a high probability of ending in disaster (or at the very least an amusing dit) and reading that account I'm tempted to say 'QED'.

[Mandator]

There is some interesting discussion in Hansard about the range and the Prussian Queen:

BOMBING RANGE, SALTFLEET (Hansard, 19 November 1953) (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1953/nov/19/bombing-range-saltfleet)

[PapaDolmio]

Spent many an evening and a fair few lunchtimes in there when stationed at Donna Nook in the 80's as our accommodation was the old Theddlethorpe Range HQ. Always pleased to see RAF there- probably because we spent so much.Was not unknown to go straight there from the range if there was an early stack due to weather, often via the Dun Horse in North Somercotes- all in uniform and in RAF Landrover. Don't think it would happen nowadays somehow!
EOD from Wittering were still clearing Theddlethorpe in 87/88.

[Pontius Navigator]

It may have been IX but I know the pictures and verse were in the Saga of the Shinies, our Sqn history. Both sqns had disbanded in 1961.

[Danny42C]

BOMBING RANGE, SALTFLEET (Hansard, 19 November 1953) (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1953/nov/19/bombing-range-saltfleet)


Mandator (#9).

This incident took place two years before I arrived at Strubby on my first ATC tour in 1955. We lived in Mablethorpe: it was a subject of much amused remark at the time - although it could've easily had a tragic outcome. I believe that the toilet seat involved was kept on display behind the lounge bar in the "Prussian Queen", although another version had it donated to the Squadron responsible.

But "Hansard" is so scrupulously polite and pedantic, with an underlying streak of humour, that it's a joy to read. Thank you for putting it in !

Danny42C.

[Pontius Navigator]

I read the range log book at Wainfleet. It reported a bomb dropped from a Lincoln well inland of the range. When it dropped a second it was told to cease bombing. The captain then said they had found out what the problem was. They were allowed to continue and did it again.

Much more recently an F15 got a DH on the quadrant building missing the occupant by 10 feet. A few years later a Tornado did it again but missed the bomb landing only 300 yards from an ignorant bunch of spotters.

[Mandator]

PN: Have you got a date for the Lincoln 'wide' release at Wainfleet? In about 1955 the RAF missed our house by about 50 yards at approx. 6.00 pm one evening. The next morning I remember what seemed to me to be a huge crater in the field opposite our house, and I credit this formative event (as well as all the aircraft visiting the range every day) for my interest in joining the RAF.

If you have any other info on the Wainfleet bombings then I would be most interested to hear.

[chevvron]

Mid-late 90s, a Jaguar coming off Larkhill Range (SPTA) 'bombed' Devizes not just with a bomb but with the entire bomb rack.

[megan]

Don't know why they bother with warheads. :p

http://www.amazingaustralia.com.au/cities/pictures/darwin-bombing-4.jpgDarwin has been bombed quite a bit during World War Two but the most recent one happened during Operation Pitch Black exercise at 9.15 Pm on August 3, when a dummy missile fell off an airforce bomber. At the time Tony Travers was preparing a BBQ for himself at his workplace and residence at # 2 Strath Road, Berrimah ( Datto's Rust Repairs), which unfortunately has gone out of business since then due to all this.

This is Tony's eye witness account of the event;

All hell broke loose when a AIM-7-CATM { Captive Air Training Missile } fell off a FA-18 Hornet as it prepared to land at Darwin airport During Operation Pitch Black on 3 August 2000. It landed 20 metres from me and hit a 1974 Toyota Landcruiser directly at the rear of my shed.

The ensuing destruction as the 250 Kg -12 foot Missile hit the Tojo at approximately 500 Kph shook the dust out of the roof of the shed as it sent a shockwave tearing through the shed.

The Boom was like a thunderclap directly overhead ,, Very Very Loud,,, It scared the Crap out of me,,, { And My 2 Red Heeler Dogs } Upon doing a search around the shed I found 1/2 of the Missile protruding out of the ground beside the Now Destroyed Toyota,, Absolute Awesome Damage ,, The Guidance Fin had cut the windscreen like a Bullet going through a playing card and the engine had been Smashed into a thousand pieces ,, You could see the pistons and internals of the motor everywhere,, Totally Destroyed !!! Diff ,, Chassi ,, Cab ,, Gearbox ,, Everything in its path,, {It Probably hit # 5 Cylinder Causing a massive backfire}

Upon Seeing this with my torch I literally **** myself and uttered F#*K many times over, Knowing that another 2 metres further towards where I was standing and I wouldn't have had a chance ,, It would have Creamed Me and the contents of my workshop,,,

The other 1/2 that broke off on impact smashed into another 3 cars before hitting a fence,, and coming to rest next to my Nissan Patrol Mudracer , The Re Occuring Dreams of this incident are still haunting me to this day ,,,therefore being the subject of a Law Suit that is still going on ,, and,, on ,,

Tony is still in a court case with the airforce, it took a long time before they coughed up part of the money for the three cars of Tony's customers that were damaged, and his rust repair business of 14 years has gone bankrupt.Blunders in Australia - Blunders from Sydney to Darwin to the outback (http://www.amazingaustralia.com.au/blunders.htm)

[Pontius Navigator]

Mandator, it would have been around that time, a Lincoln IIRC, The topography has changed a lot so the description of the event is hard to tie in to today's landscape.

The camp was about 2 north of its last location at Eaudyke. The target may also have been further north as we had a couple of defunct targets there. It was certainly inland but the only feature I recall as the impact was close to a right angle bend in the road.

[Pontius Navigator]

chevron, not to forget the Jaguar that bombed the wrong island off Scotland with 1000 lb HE. The bird watchers were not amused.

[BEagle]

The most spectacular long bomb I ever heard about involved the aged navigator who was standing in for our regular plotter whilst the latter was away on an anti-honking course.

Some years earlier, this worthy had been on Lincolns. Whilst conducting a night practice bombing attack on some range on the German coast, he'd misidentified the target and as a result took out an entire wildlife sanctuary....

Wild duck featured on the local menus for quite a while, I imagine... Although perhaps some rather unusual cuts?

[bosnich71]

My version of the story has it as a 9 Sqdn.Canberra piloted by a certain Ted Flavel who wrote the ditty which should be sung to the tune of 'Three old ladies locked in the lavatory'..........
" Oh dear what can the matter be
three old ladies locked in the lavatory
hiding from bombs from Monday to Saturday
Nine squadron knew they were there"


.... and so on.

[BEagle]

The Summer of '76 was particularly hot and dry - which was unusual in South Wales. One fine day at Pembrey Sands range, a 79 Sqn Hunter with some Wg Cdr on a refresher course tips in to the 10° dive bombing attack line....

The RSO is expecting the usual 25 lb smoke and flash bomb to be dropped; however, much to his surprise a pair of still quite full 230 gall drop tanks tumble off the wings and impact rather short, saturating the tinder dry range with kerosene. "Unplottable at six" calls the RSO - the Wg Cdr is somewhat miffed when told to RTB in response to his request to continue...:rolleyes:

Despite the red tags and safety flaps, he'd managed to select 'pylons inner' - so when he pressed the tit, the ejector release units worked as advertised...

I was stand-in RSO one day when the normal chap was away and it was quite fun really. Two QFIs in a JP managed to fly through the range between a Hunter tipping in for a (fortunately dry) strafe attack and the target, so I did some detective work and guessed they'd be on their way to St Mawgan - which indeed they were, as I found out when I rang St Mawgan ATC "Compliments of Officer Commanding RAF Pembrey Sands, but please advise the JP captain that the next time he flies through a live weapons range he might just get shot down!". They promised to pass the message on.

During the afternoon a yacht drifted across the attack track not far from the coast, so we had to stop live weapons for a while. 'Kiwi' Ωn was at the helm of one Hunter in the pattern, so I asked him if he could see whether there was any activity on the yacht to indicate that it was underway....

"Yes, there's activity! There's a couple sh*****g on the deck"
"Doing what?"
"SH*****G!"
"Can you 'persuade' them to go away?"

So after a couple of fast low passes from my chum, up went the sail and away they went! Back to normal business on the range once the lads on the quadrants had stopped nearly wetting themselves laughing.

[Pontius Navigator]

Bosnich, I bow to your accreditation, so we have a 9/12 competition the same as 9/617.

[Slow Biker]

It must have been around 1969 that a 14 Sqn BI8 dropped a 25lb PB on the road close to the Akrotiri NAFFI. It gave rise to the gleeful chant '14 Sqn bombed the NAFFI' throughout the remainder of the det.

[Pontius Navigator]

SB, by then it would have been the 28lb.

Years later an intrepid pilot dropped the whole CBLS on Wainfleet range. Naturally it didn't go bang and we duly recovered it for our trophy haul however it was hardly dry from the wash down before his 'mates' turned up and claimed it for their own purposes.

[Green Flash]

Beagle, this Hunter switch faff must have been an epidemic. A friend who worked at Cowden many moons ago told me of a Hunter pickling off both tanks which removed 50 yards of cliff top with a very satisfying thud.

[Slow Biker]

PN.
I did wonder if it was a 28lb, but after 48 years my memory of small details is not so good. I have to say I am amazed at the memory of some posters, clearly older than my three score and ten and a bit yet with such precise recall.

[Barksdale Boy]

PN

I dropped 16 25lb PBs out of Akrotiri in January 1972. Thereafter it seems to have been exclusively 28lb PBs.

[Pontius Navigator]

BB, I'll check see if it had the same dates. Could be Akrotiri had legacy stocks.

SB, the point about the 25lb on external carriage was its risk of on-pylon detonation from bird strike. This led to both the CBLS and 28lb.

[Barksdale Boy]

PN

Was dropping them from Waddo throughout '71.

[Pontius Navigator]

BB, my last drop at Akrotiri was Oct 71 thereafter 28lb. I remember John McCrae, the nav rad trapper asking what was the colour of the 25lb and 28lb. Of course the 25lb had a yellow band and the 28lb brown, both were blue.

No they weren't. The 25lb was Duck Egg Blue and the 28lb was French Powder Blue - FFS it was f***ing blue. from Jan '71 I recorded both 25 and 28 drops.

At Waddo I once ordered a crew that had a hang up on the 28lb, which was of course ejected, to do a safe drop in the Wash jettison area, carrier and all! That was probably in 1968 and no later than '69.

I guess they must have decided that it was safe to drop the old stocks of 25lb that may have been in Germany ex-Canberras etc.

[Tankertrashnav]

My biggest error on the NBS course at Lindholme was 9 miles - I "attacked" the wrong reservoir dam up in the Yorkshire Dales. Fortunately no actual bombs were involved, just an electronic pulse.

Just as well I ended up on tankers and they never let me loose with the real thing!

[Pontius Navigator]

TTN, mine in the V-Force was a shade less than 6 miles on Watertown. Terry Lynn on 35 then borrowed my offsets and got nearer 7 and an interview, hats on, with the AOC.

[Bigpants]

These war stories are all well and good but can we get back to the threads main issue please? Should this bomb count as a DH given the bomb aimer thought the pub was the target? This is a serious point which retired QWIs should adjudicate on while the rest of us laugh long and hard. Of course I threw few wild ones here and there myself but under the rehabilitation of offenders act I don't have to declare them on my CV anymore.

[Pontius Navigator]

Definitely a Dog How, he hit what he aimed at, just like the F15 jock at Wainfleet.

Target mis-ident OTOH scores under an entirely different register :)

[binbrook]

BP
Not a QWI, but clearly yet another DH for XI(B), and the pub was definitely smaller than the Tirpitz.

[Pontius Navigator]

BK, IX please.

[JimmAttrill]

Well, there's a guy on the "other RAF forum" who says it was 617 Squadron which I somewhat doubt. I think it was a Canberra of 9 Sqn.

The New RAF Forum (http://www.360people.co.za/forums/showthread.php?tid=294&page=4)

[Barksdale Boy]

PN

Thread drift but good memories of Jock McCrae, a fine nav rad before he became a standardizer. He gave me a very fair ground oral which, after about an hour, we had to abandon because an alert was called and he said "I'm getting out of here". He had the good grace to say that I did OK.

[KiloB]

The Summer of '76 was particularly hot and dry - which was unusual in South Wales. One fine day at Pembrey Sands range, a 79 Sqn Hunter with some Wg Cdr on a refresher course tips in to the 10° dive bombing attack line....

The RSO is expecting the usual 25 lb smoke and flash bomb to be dropped; however, much to his surprise a pair of still quite full 230 gall drop tanks tumble off the wings and impact rather short, saturating the tinder dry range with kerosene. "Unplottable at six" calls the RSO - the Wg Cdr is somewhat miffed when told to RTB in response to his request to continue...:rolleyes:

Despite the red tags and safety flaps, he'd managed to select 'pylons inner' - so when he pressed the tit, the ejector release units worked as advertised...

I was stand-in RSO one day when the normal chap was away and it was quite fun really. Two QFIs in a JP managed to fly through the range between a Hunter tipping in for a (fortunately dry) strafe attack and the target, so I did some detective work and guessed they'd be on their way to St Mawgan - which indeed they were, as I found out when I rang St Mawgan ATC "Compliments of Officer Commanding RAF Pembrey Sands, but please advise the JP captain that the next time he flies through a live weapons range he might just get shot down!". They promised to pass the message on.

During the afternoon a yacht drifted across the attack track not far from the coast, so we had to stop live weapons for a while. 'Kiwi' Ωn was at the helm of one Hunter in the pattern, so I asked him if he could see whether there was any activity on the yacht to indicate that it was underway....

"Yes, there's activity! There's a couple sh*****g on the deck"
"Doing what?"
"SH*****G!"
"Can you 'persuade' them to go away?"

So after a couple of fast low passes from my chum, up went the sail and away they went! Back to normal business on the range once the lads on the quadrants had stopped nearly wetting themselves laughing.

They left!
Since Sailing, Shxxxxxg and Hunter Blue Notes are well up my list of favourite things I would have thought I had died and gone to heaven. I suppose it would be too much to hope your mate had a couple of bottles of decent Port tucked in the air brake?

[Rosevidney1]

Perhaps an 'indecent' bottle of the neck juice might have been more appropriate! :mad:

[Albert&finner]

“I was the Station Armament Officer at Scampton with Lincolns. We had problems with the 25 lb practice bomb failing to detonate upon striking land or water. I suggested to Bomber Command that the cause was the icing up of the spring-loaded safety plunger, which was supposed to pop out and arm the bomb when it fell from the rack.
Bomber Command responded by ordering that the spring-loaded safety plunger should be attached to the rack with a wire lanyard, to ensure its detachment when dropped. This was a disastrous decision. The bomb could be snatched violently on release and tumble end over end and land short of the danger area.
I was then posted to Binbrook to be Station Armament Officer. On one occasion I had to go to the Prussian Queen Hotel at Theddlethorpe, where a practice bomb had gone straight down the ladies loo, while the seat was still warm!
I reported this hazard and came up with a new design of firing system that would be more reliable and safer. After many obstructions and many mishaps, my idea was eventually accepted and the ‘Mark 2’ 25 lb Practice Bomb resulted”.
Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis DSO, MBE, DEng, PhD, RAF (Ret'd)
Ken flew 32 ops as a Wellington bomber pilot in WW2.
Ken served for 2 years in Strategic Air Command where he flew the giant B-36 with an atom bomb on board during the Cold War.
Ken doubled as James Bond in “You Only Live Twice” flying his own “Little Nellie” autogyro.
Ken set 34 World Records for the autogyro in two classes, and many records still stand.
Ken passed away on 1 Sep 2013.

[NutLoose]

chevron, not to forget the Jaguar that bombed the wrong island off Scotland with 1000 lb HE. The bird watchers were not amused.

And the one that tried to take out the sandbagging party on Hill 60 at Bruggen.... they were not amused either.

[NutLoose]

Or the Avionics bod carrying a box of 3kg practice bombs out to put on the trolley for Deci, he was not amused when the bottom of the box split open, dropping them all onto the apron in front of him.

:E

[George K Lee]

Lucky there was nobody in there. If there had been, and his name was Tape, you'd have been close to the title of a Samuel Beckett one-act play.

[Slow Biker]

Song Song range '66. The hessian gunnery targets were strung between poles on the beach. Whilst changing one target I was showered with sand as an Aussie Sabre let fly with 30mm Adens at an adjacent one. Not happy!
Whilst on the subject of Song Song did any Vulcan drivers out there drop 100lb PBs there in that era?

[Hipper]

This may involve 100lb practice bombs.


In August 1959 my father's 7 Squadron Valiant was a on a 'Sunspot' exercise dropping bombs on the range at El Adem, Libya.


The Operational Record Book reports that 'the aircraft was held off the range for 40 minutes whilst target flares were replaced. The previous set had been stolen by the natives while bombing was in progress for their paraffin value'.