HOW THEY DO GROW

Otaki Mail, 25 January 1943, Page 4

HOW THEY DO GROW

LITTLE BOMBS, BIGGER BOMBS, ENORMOUS BOMBS!

(By Colin Bcdnull in “Sydney Sun.”) Bombs are big nows to-day. The bigger the bombs, the bigger the news. Ask Hitler and Mussolini —they both know quite a lot about our big bombs. Especially the four-tonners! A Royal Air Force pilot has just, been telling what it is like dropping cue of the new 8000-pounders, which have devastated Gorman and Italian war plants. . It is rather like dropping a brick into a puddle of water, he said that is if you can possibly liken a block of buildings the size of St. Jaine’s Pail, to a puddle of water. The brick lobs in the middle. The water rushes away. Then it rushes together again. Then it flics in all directions and the- middle of the once placid little puddle is left l just a dirty wet patch. The bomb, ol , course, does its job with biast - terrific, irresistible blast that rolls ou. in a sheet of white flame. Most of it moves laterally, so that it spends almost all its power on the target. But a mile or so up in the air the plane which drops it is sometimes tossed almost on its back by the force of the explosion. Blast bombs, of course, represent just one branch of the destructive genius which is the foundation of offensive air operations. There are incendiary bombs, delayed-action bombs, armourpiercing bombs, anti-personnel bombs, and anti-submarine bombs —big bombs and little bombs, fat bombs and skinny bomibs. Finding tho right bomb for each of the many targets now open to air attack is a highly specialised science. Even the choice of paint for the finished article is important. Tho range and nature of bombs are con stantly being revised. Since the beginning of the war separate types, like the incendiary, have been big develop ments. The delayed-action bomb has always been the subject of much cunniug ingenuity. Its uses extend beyond tow-n blitzes, and, as the Gormans arc well aware, the R.A.F. was making the most of them long before “bomb disposal” became such a familiar aftermath of raids on this country. Delayed-action bombs might be employed to advantage for a tricky job, such as putting an enemy aerodrome out of action. No station commander is keen about using an aerodrome which lie suspects is planted with high-explo-sives. Even if he 3ets about digging up the delayed-action bombs, the clearance will be a long job. The aerodrome will be out of use sufficiently long to permit, say, the landing of troops ou a nearby beach. Armour-piercing bombs arc usually long-snouted objects designed to penetrate tough surfaces —such as tho decks of warships—before they explode. Semi-armour-piercing bombs were once employed a good deal in tow-n blitzes with the idea that it wa3 more useful to have bombs explode on the ground floor of a building than on the top floor. They may be extensively employed again'as a result of the increased use made of underground stores, factories, and submarine yards, which cannot be reached by blast bombs. Their innportaneo in naval warfare and as anti-tank weapons has always been great. Armour-piercing bombs require the highest possible velocity, and so far this has been gained mainly by dropping them from great heights. Recently, however, there have been developments, reported from Russia, in the rocket-propulsion for bombs. In theory, at leaot, this will greatly increase both their penetrating power and the accuracy of awa. Anti-personnel bombs constitute a big and unpleasant family. The lightweight ones are scattered on troops with much tho same effect as grenades. The Japanese, remember, packed', some c-l theirs with old razor blades. Anti-submarine bombs are designed to produce the greatest possible percussion effect below water —sort of de-layed-action blast bombs, j All those, and some secret types of bombs, are on tho catalogue of the li.A.F.’s Maintenance Command. When the bombs come from the factories they are stoTed underground. Deep down beneath the slopes of many a green English hill to-day there are rambling galleries stacked with hundreds "of bombs. Old mines are often employed for this purpose. There is a dreadful fascination about big bombs and tho damage they do. For those at whom they are likely to be aimed the interest is a matter of very urgent concern. Tho Germans have gone to tremendous lengths to discover the secrets of our “block bombs.” There ;s a bomber crew, I believe, who actually made a forced landing on a 40001 b. bomb and lived to tell the tale. They had taken off from an aerodrome in England to raid an industrial centre in Germany. Their aircraft was one of the older types in Bomber Command at the time, and the bomb doors could not be closed over the bomb. So it was carried tucked up underneath like a half-laid egg. As the plane wag taking off, one engine cut out, and with its wheels retracted the plane slid back on to the . aerodrome. It made a perfect belly ' landing on top of the 4000-pounder. ■ Not only the crew, but everyone on the station expected to be blown to bits—little bits—but just for once nothing happened. The growth in the size of bombs has been roughly proportionate to the development of the aeroplanes which carry them. Iu the early stages of the last war the average high-explosive 1 bomb weighed about 161 b. whether it I was intended to break' up a defence I works, wreck a factory, or sink a ! battleship. It was chucked over the side of a plane by hand. In the R.A.F.’s * first bombing attack on German territory in this war—the reprisal raid on Sylt in March, 1940—the biggest bombs dropped weighed 5001 b. each. Then in April, 1941 excitement was caused by an announcement that “a new type of high-explosive bomb, possessing a much greater power of destruction than anj used hitherto,” had been carried to Emden. This was a 2000-pounder—still a mere pellet by present R.A.F. standards, but as big as most of the bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe on Britain-. One of tho first people, incidentally, to ice! the tremor left by a 2000 pounder may well have been Hitler himself. An “experimental job” of this size is said to have been dropped cn Munich when he was making his “beercellar” speech in November, 1940. Nazis Pipe Down. Towards the end ot 3941 the - 4006pounders were being carried in increasing numbers to Germany, and also to targets in Italy and Australia. The Germans made some very frank admissions about the damage caused by

these bombs, and when the new 8000pounders began to arrive this year they realised that encouragement was the last thing they should give to the bigger and better bomb movement. So, with the sublime absurdity of which onl}’ a German propagandist is capable, they went hack to talking of “nuisance raids.” Just what sort of <t “nuisance” an 80001 b. bomb would be in the midst of a key city is not difficult to imagine. , If you look closely at aerial photo- j graphs taken of places in Germany after some of this year’s raids you will notice that way out on the fringes of the devastated areas there is often something wrong with the shadows thrown by a row of buildings. Judged merely by the rooftops, which take up most of a “vertical” photo graph there is little sign of damage in these fringes, vet the shadows are honeycombed with light. This is a sure sign that the buildings have been scooped out inside as useless as if they had been levelled to the ground.