Next time Dr. Hunt asks to read 60 year-old documents, can someone else turn the pages for him?

Forget about the cavalier DC-4 pilot, I was more surprised to see Hunt flicking through Wallis' original paperwork as though he were leafing through the Sunday supplements - not a jot of care for their preservation. :ugh:

Clearly, the reason that this programme was made in Canada is that the Campaign Against Aviation (CAA) in UK would have had a field day with this one. The requisite rain-forest volume of paperwork to be submitted would have joined Michael (Ryanair) O'Leary's ideas for stand-up seats & pay toilets.

BTW, on the subject of Ryanair, if you want to see a real rib-tickler, check out youtube 'fascinating aida cheap flights'. A real tonic!

617 Lancs
 

Anyone kow what happened to the Lancs modified to carry the bouncing bomb. Were they returned to standard configuration or kept in case they were required for further missions?

what happened to the lancs?
 

"Anyone kow what happened to the Lancs modified to carry the bouncing bomb. Were they returned to standard configuration or kept in case they were required for further missions?"

According to the book "The Dambusters" the ones that survived the raid were rapidly returned to conventional configuration as they were desperately required for Bomber Commands saturation raids on Germany
This came to be a problem later when 617 were tasked to sink Tirpitz in a Nowegian fjord. The Upkeep bombs would have been ideal for hopping over the anti-torpedo nets. Instead 617 had to use "Tallboy" earthquake bombs (another Barnes Wallis design - they must have loved these suicide missions with his designs)

I've read somewhere that toward the end of the war a squadron of similar spherical Highball-fitted Mosquitos were sent out to the far east to attack Japanese shipping, but the Yanks refused to have them around and sent them back. Anyone know more?

ah -edit, courtesy of Google
618 Squadron had the Highball Mozzies, but never got to use them in anger it seems

Page 5
 

Any body having probs reading Page 5 of this thread. Click on the link and get straight back to page 4?
Very strange. It said there was a page 5 but it wasn't visible. Posted this message brought page 5 up with this the only post. So ZFR.

not now you've posted that....
must be an index problem, but looks like it cured itself

Contrary to what was said in the programme, according to Wikipedia (so it must be true :rolleyes:) the US trials of Highball were not post-war; the first A-26 was converted by Vickers in January 1945 and the tests were carried out over Choctawhatchee Bay near Eglin Field, Florida where the unfortunate aircraft, A-26C-25-DT 43-22644, crashed fatally on 28 April 1945, thus ending the programme.

Looks as if they were anti-shipping trials then for the Pacific.

so - the Americans couldn't make Highball work, so they refused to let 618 Squadronl- who DID make it work in training - outdo them?

archive film
 

archive film of Highball and Upkeep

Nice find. Some of the A26s in there too. Liked the flight of 3 Mozzies, clearly what you would need against a warship. Wonder which ship that was.

according to Wikdipaedia 618 Squadron practiced on two ships:
first the French battleship Courbet
after that was used in the "Mulberry" harbours they used HMS Malaya

Hopefully someone can ID one or the other

Location for both ships was Loch Striven

What would the advantage have been by using the bouncing bomb over a torpedo when attacking shipping?

November4,

Avoids torpedo nets, booms and other such defences.

it was to get past torpedo nets hung around ships while anchored
The main initial target was Tirpitz, laid up in Norway in a fjord
The idea was to bounce the bomb over the nets, then have it sink below the ship and hole it low down where the armour was thinner.
A torpedo would hit too high - on the thickest part of the armour plate

there is apparently a training video in the war archives of 618 Squadron bowling rubberised Highballs down a railway tunnel in Wales. Its mentioned several times on the internet and theres a thread somewhere on pprune from a chap who has seen it, but it seems not to have leaked onto the internet

Thanks James and Pr00ne - wasn't that the original reason that bouncing bomb was designed to overcome, the belief that the dams were protected by torpedo nets?

I believe so - but thats only from what I've read !

Bouncing Bombs
 

The film held by the RAFM of Mosquito trials of the dropping of "highball" into a railway tunnel mouth in Wales are most impressive. The aircraft were flown by "Shorty" Longbottom and Bob Handasyde during October 1943

just found another clip (on a Russian website!) showing 618 squadron practicing.
Includes twin-bomb releases - and the view of the impact from one of the ships

ЯП файлы - Dambuster Raid - VERY RARE test film including fatal American trial


50 minutes documentary about the dams raid - split as 5x10mins

You Tube

I'm sure some Highball trials were against a hulk in Loch Fyne. And the Germans had a rocket propelled :ooh: 'Highball' called Kurt