Re: Strategic Reserve.

["Roger L. Traviss" <rogertra@islandnet.com>]

"B.Rumary" wrote:

> 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"!

Thanks for the update.  As I wrote, I wasn't sure about the tunnel but did know of the
Bielefeld viaduct even I couldn't remember its name.  However, it proves the point that
railway bridges were indeed, difficult target to hit from the air.

> 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!

Even the twin engine, wooden construction Mosquito could carry a bigger bomb load than
any American bomber.

I should have written that the Americans - usually - only carried 500lb bombs.  500lb
bombs, while quite capable of doing heavy damage to buildings, are almost useless against
heavy machine tools and can, quite literally, bounce off without doing any damage.

The Americans generally went after industry while the RAF concentrated on the civilian
workers by destroying their homes with the policy of "area bombing".  The hope was that
the RAF would effect the morale or the German workers and thus lower production.  Neither
policy worked well.  The American bombs, while damaging the buildings didn't destroy the
machine tools that did the actual production.  The only really effective raids were those
on the oil, both natural and synthetic plants, as these plants don't use heavy machinery
and contain mainly thin storage tanks and miles of thin piping.  As for the RAF's "area
bombing", civilian morale in Germany was never shaken just as it wasn't in the UK during
the Blitz.

Production in Germany continued to rise all through the war years reaching its peak in
late 1944 and early 1945.

--
Cheers
Roger T.
Sunny and warm, Victoria, BC
C eh n eh d eh