Naval History Forums

Gentlemen, I have to agree, the RN would be foolish to try and take on such an overwhelming force -all they had was one modern battleship an elderly battlecruiser and four destroyers against two battleships, two heavy cruisers (with 8" guns?) and eight destroyers probably armed with the deadly Long ...

Hi Pieter C, That Facebook site has some excellent photos including the head on shot with the port anchor down, it could be water has drained across the deck and down the starboard hawsepipe. The blobs on deck could be be two crewmen with a hose whilst the rest of the party are clustered round the ...

Many thanks for the post Wadinga, you really are a mine of information, perhaps i will work out how to tell my bow from my stern in future!

On investigation, PE did lose her stern in a torpedo attack

Its interesting to see that the stern has snapped off, like Bismarck and I think Prince Eugen, was there something faulty in the building or the design of these ships? Not Prinz Eugen. You must be thinking of another ship. See image below from Wiki. Prinz-Eugen-wreck-2018.jpg I think it might have ...

Gentlemen, As always, many thanks for your replies, As you say the 'Bouncing Bombs' used water pressure to crack the dam wall(a bit like a giant depth charge) what I was wondering is what the effect would be if a 'Tallboy' (or 'Grand Slam') did land close to the dam wall, would they undermine it and...

Gentlemen, We have discussed 'Earthquake' bombs and 'Bouncing' bombs in another thread, however I have often wondered what the result would have been if Barnes Wallis had developed his 'Tallboy' and 'Grand Slam' bombs earlier on an used either one or both types on the dams, would they have destroyed...

Thanks Wadinga,
I'll bet it made a mess of the ROV! it just shows that no fuze can ever be relied upon to deactivate over time, even underwater
It makes one wonder if there are more unexploded 'Tallboys' in the mud around where Tirpitz was sunk as they dropped quite a number on her.

Gentlemen, Getting back to the bomb itself, the films available on U tube certainly show a very spectacular waterspout, but some of the comentry is a little confusing. The report in the daily papers said they were trying to flush out the explosive when it went off, this procedure was normally carrie...

Gentlemen, In a post on the attack on Tarranto, I asked this question: "It is widely assumed that the Japanese attack or Pearl Harbour was motivated by the RN attack on the Italian port of Tarranto. After watching a documentary on the Pearl Harbour attack it showed the tail of the Japanese torpedoes...

Its interesting to see that the stern has snapped off, like Bismarck and I think Prince Eugen, was there something faulty in the building or the design of these ships?

Just a couple of afterthoughts, the bomb must have been very deep in the mud with a 6 ton bomb falling at high speed. Also regarding flushing out the explosive from a mine or bomb, there was a TV series called 'Danger UXB' which was repeated a while ago which showed holes being drilled in the casing...

Thanks Wadinga, I would have thought that a fairly large target like a Mosquito approaching a well armed ship like Tirpitz at the low level needed to drop the bomb would have been extremely hazardous. There is one of the practice bombs recovered from Chesill Beach in Dorset on display at the swan sa...

Gentlemen, I'm not sure here to put this so i placed it in this bit! Following the success of the 'Dams' raid the RAF experimented with a smaller bouncing bomb to be dropped against ships by a Mosquito bomber. although I believe they were not particularly well regarded as a weapon. My question is th...

Hi Wadinga, I would have thought that the 'tallboy' would have gone straight through a ship like 'Lutzow' bearing in mind the damage they did to Tirpitz. Re the burning out of explosives from bombs, this as a normal practice over here particularly with paracute mines if the fuzes were damaged and co...