In article ,
Ken Duffey wrote:
ANDREW ROBERT BREEN wrote:
The simple torpedo runs into a simple anti-torpedo net before it reaches
the dam. The bouncing bomb skips over the net. The germans had thought

I think you have all missed the point of the bouncing bomb.

Umm - request subtraction of "all" from that one, Ken

Not only did it skip over the anti-torpedo nets, but its backwards spin then drove
it against the wall of the dam as it sank - it was actually a depth charge, not a
'bomb'.

It was designed to explode at the BASE of the dam - underwater.

Not impossible, I'd have thought, to devise a torpedo that would drop its
head at end of run for the same effect. All added complication, of courrse
- and added weight, which is worse.

Trials had shown that exploding that amount of explosive against the top of the
dam had little effect - but put the same charge underwater - and the water acted
like a buffer - forcing the blast against the dam wall.

It multiplied the force of the charge by a large factor.

I've wondered whethewr a super-sized version of the Broach-Bomb - the
RN's super anti-ship weapon (so fearful a device that it was never used in
WW2, just in case the Germans picked up on the idea) would have worked
- this was a carefully-shaped free-fall bomb, designed to enter the water
off a ship's side, carry on underwater then rise up until it was resting
under then ship then boom. The 250lb was reckoned to be good for a
mission-kill (and impossible to protect against) on any ship. There were
also 1000lb and 2000lb versions.. (ouch). You'd need care in fusing
and obviously no point in having the bouyancy chamber, but a *big* broach
-bomb with a depth-fuse might have done it. Possibly not accurate enough.
The bouncing bomb was a brilliant solution to putting the bang where it
needed to be.

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock
and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas)