bombs

[chrish483]

watching the movie pearl harber  (remake) i noticed the scene where a jap bomb droped to low landed in a flak bunker, the arming impeller was still spinning then stopped and then exploded.   was that left out of the code for the ones we use?

[Motherland]

Just to let you know, that movie is infamous for it's total lack of historical accuracy.

[Serenity]

Just to let you know, that movie is infamous for it's total lack of historical accuracy.

Pearl Harbor is to historical accuracy as Nazi Germany was to tolerance.

[10thmd]

Could have had a delay setting.

[AWwrgwy]

Our impeller only turns for 1000 feet of travel.  If the bomb stops, so does it.


wrongway

[Chalenge]

The bombs in B-17s and B-24s have pins inserted in the impellers that are pulled before the aircraft reach the IP. The impellers should not begin spinning until the bomb drops but sometimes they did. After so many rotations the bomb is armed and any jolt will set it off unless it is a delayed fuse (some bombs were fused to explode as much as 24 hours later). If the target could not be located and the bombs could not be dropped on a visible target they might try to bomb by radar or they would reinsert the pins (if they still had them) and drop the bombs into the mountains or lakes or whatever. Bombardiers had enough on their conscious as it was and didnt just drop the bombs on anything (according to the books they wrote anyway). Sometimes a bomb would hang in the rack with the impeller spinning in which case they would pry the bomb loose and let it drop. You never want to land with a bomb slung in the rack.

One story I read indicated the bombardier had dropped the pins in the bomb bay and the navigator had taken a leak in the bomb bay after the relief tube had frozen over. The pins were frozen to the doors and the doors frozen together so they could not bomb and they could not dump ord either. They dropped to low level until the puddle thawed and the bombardier made the navigator reinsert the pins before they dumped ord in the Adriatic.

[Angus]

AFAIK the bigger AP bombs the Japs used at Pearl were modded naval arty shells.
And the way of torpedoes travwelling in that shallow water was actually adapted from the British which made an excellent torpedo attack at Taranto, at NIGHT some while before Pearl.
There is a good part in the movie though. Kate Beckinsale 

[CAP1]

Just to let you know, that movie is infamous for it's total lack of historical accuracy.

correct.

we all know it was the GERMANS that attacted pearl. 

[Simba]

"we all know it was the GERMANS that attacted pearl."

Yes, Brother Bluto.

Hoho, it's not just bad movies that eschew historical accuracy. Yesterday, I was watching a History Channel bit of stuff-'n'-nonsense about the Pearl attack, in which the inane commentary stated that the battleships sunk at Pearl were the first. Obviously the so-called writer had never heard about Taranto.

And the 'Great Planes' series on Discovery. What a crock. Any old aircraft newsreel film they like stuffed into the intervals between the talking. If I see that Lysander going into the sea one more time . . .

 

[CAP1]

"we all know it was the GERMANS that attacted pearl."

Yes, Brother Bluto.

Hoho, it's not just bad movies that eschew historical accuracy. Yesterday, I was watching a History Channel bit of stuff-'n'-nonsense about the Pearl attack, in which the inane commentary stated that the battleships sunk at Pearl were the first. Obviously the so-called writer had never heard about Taranto.

And the 'Great Planes' series on Discovery. What a crock. Any old aircraft newsreel film they like stuffed into the intervals between the talking. If I see that Lysander going into the sea one more time . . .

 

glad someone caught my joke.

ya...all of these "documentaries" i think are starting to become either propaganda, or just plain stupidly done.

[phatzo]

correct.

we all know it was the GERMANS that attacted pearl. 

didn't they use a helicopter 

[OOZ662]

didn't they use a helicopter 

[Baumer]

Here's a good source if you'd like to read up on British bombs and Fuzes.



Here is the index, it's a large document, 324 pages
http://hnsa.org/doc/britord/index.htm

Pages 278 and 279 explain how the spinning nose fuze work



<S> Baumer

[Ghosth]

Very nice Baumer, ty sir!

[Westy]

What's the point?
No one is ever going to see the impeller let alone whether it stops or doesn't.