Re: Strategic Reserve.

["B.Rumary" <brian.rumary@virgin.net>]

> Only the Brits had a bomb powerful enough to damage a tunnel.
> That was Barns Wallace's "Tall Boy".   I don't believe it was ever used on
> a tunnel but was used to destroy a viaduct that had been the target of
> intensive, but fruitless raids by both the RAF and the USAF.  I can't
> remember how the viaduct's name is spelt but it was something like "Biefeld".
>
A tunnel was destroyed in France, using a Tallboy, as it was being used to store 
V1's. However this is the only example I know of. The viaduct was at Bielefeld, 
north-east of the Ruhr. It proved impossible to score direct hits on it, despite 
churning up the surrounding ground. The Tallboy did not score an actual hit, but the 
ground vibrations it set up by a near miss "shook" the bridge down - as Barnes Wallis 
planned it to do. He called it an "earthquake bomb"!

> The Americans only had "small", 500 pound,  bombs and their aircraft carried 
> relatively small bomb loads.  While American bombs might do major damage to > 
buildings and similar structures, they didn't have enough explosive power to
> damage large machine tools or major bridges, let alone tunnels.
>
The US & UK both had normal bombs up to 8,000 pound, but the US B-17's had less 
carrying capacity, due to their heavy armament. These bombers were supposed to 
operate in daylight, unlike the British bombers that flew at night, and so they 
expected to achieve greater accuracy and so do more damage per ton of bombs. However 
remember only the Lancaster could carry a 12,000 pound "Tallboy" or 22,000 "Grand 
Slam" and then only limited distances - they weren't used that often. The biggest 
damage done in the war was often with the smallest bombs - incendiaries!

Brian Rumary, England

http://freespace.virgin.net/brian.rumary/homepage.htm