Clive !!!

[v-lux]

there's also some awesome flying.

Isnt there just!

Amazing footage of it all too, the slow mo shots of the DC4 banking in and settling at 40ft above the lake.....wow.

[HarryMann]

Well, I'll be... was within yards the other day, actually drove a gravelly lane parallel to the beach for about a mile... and sat on Chesil beach, even had a paddle

(avoiding the garbage and dogs doings of course, yuk! )

File:Highball Bouncing Bomb at Abbotsbury Swannery Dorset UK.JPG (That's just behind Chesil beach, one of the testing grounds)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Highb ... set_UK.JPG

From then on, because of the dimples, they called them all 'Golf bombs', the Highball remained of this approx. type, Upkeep for the Dams evolving into a larger cylindrical drum

[Titus A Duxass]

... and settling at 40ft above the lake.....wow.

All done by eye and absolutely rock steady.

[v-lux]

Love the bit when the university professor said "no, you were much higher than 80ft, more like 180ft"

Pilot Arnie judging altitude by eye says , "180ft! no we werent, we were at 80ft!

Pilot was correct, sweet!

[HarryMann]

Saw that then... good flying but just shows doesn't it , wasn't easy... because this was...

a bomb 1/10 th the weight of Upkeep, not flown across Germany at treetop height at night first, not dropped on a 'virgin, unseen' target in a tight valley with a nasty curve at the entrance, not being fired at, not freezing boll***ing cold...

and no colourful playpark floating drop markers.

Funny they didn't mention the height setting rig that was (supposedly) used on the dams raids... searchlights pointed inwards to comverge at 60 ft

Also didn't mention that at least three other bright sparks worked on the Dams solution.

and that the RAF had highlighted the Ruhr Dams as a significant (but difficult) target, before the war, certainly before Wallis.

Overall though, nobody has tried to do this since WWII AFAIK, must have costs a few quid to make

Did show the possibilities of knocking things over with a bouncing bomb... the momentum energy was apparent for all to see, for such a wee drum

and this is exactly what the Mossies were doing with Highball, knocking concrete buildings down, the flanks of bridges and suchlike, at very low level (singificantly less than 60 ft, but flying faster than the Lanc or DC-4). Highball attacks and the sighting devices (helmet sights) were developed to a very high level. They could carry two Highballs apiece, being approx a half ton device.

Oh, and of course, it is quite possible that at least 3 of the Moehne hits were fairly accurate and it took all of them to shake the foundations enough to make it collapse. At least one likely flew over the parapet!

.. and one that was downed on the way (cables/pylons?) was found unexploded, so they soon had that apart and knew what we were up to with bouncing bombs. The explosive inside was a bit special, too... Torpex, same as that used in the earthquake bombs

What amazed Albert Speer (Minister of Works, one of the few Nazi high command not to be hung at Neurenberg), was that we never went back to firebomb the falswework as they rebuilt it with thousands of (slave workers). Despite massively increased defensive protection, he was sure we'd be back tsometime before the rains refilled it... so, effectively seriously reducing the 'long term' crippling of their Ruhr Industries (they diverted other Dam water and electricity to fill in the supply gaps, seasonally till it was all rebuilt (with 18 months I believe).

Development and testing concluded on 13 May 1943 with the dropping of a live, cylindrical Upkeep bomb 5 miles (8 km) out to sea from Broadstairs, Kent, by which time Wallis had specified that the bomb must be dropped at "precisely" 60 feet (18 m) above the water and 232mph (373 km/h) groundspeed, with back-spin at 500rpm: the bomb "bounced seven times over some 800 yards [730 metres], sank and detonated".[19]

Correction: Upkeep weighed just short of 10,000 lb, or 5 tons (not 12,000 lb)