IMPOSSIBLE

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 65, 21 August 1944, Page 4

IMPOSSIBLE

TOOK NINETY HOURS. Tins is me story of an apparently impossible assignment, which was accomplished in 90 hours. At one time earlier in the present conflict, Allied forces in a certain area found that they had American-made bombs to carry in British planes, and that the bombs would not fit in the bomb racks designed for British-made block- uusti rs. A simple adapter was needed and the need was urgent. Via long-distance telephone, the

Army outlined the problem to a factory in America one afternoon. Designs for a suitable adapter were quickly set down on paper, while material necessary for making them up was rushed by taxi-cab from a nearby plant. Factory engineers and workmen worked at top speed throughout the night, with the result that the first bomb adapters were loaded into fast trucks at daybreak, to be rushed to a near-by airfield. A waiting bomber flew the adapters to waiting bomb crews a few thousand miles away—elapsed time between telephone call and delivery, only 90 hours. Thus the “ impossible*’ job of flying

American-made bombs in the boi racks of British planes was •t«<plished in 90 hours.