You have a tiny little error Bismarck. The Grand Slam isn´t the biggest conventional Bomb of WW2 or all Time. This Title is for the T-12 Cloudmaker with 43.600 lbs. deployed 1944. Grand Slam is "only" the biggest conventional bomb that has seen action
Uboat Bunker Valentin in my hometown was hit by two Grand Slams that created 8m wide wholes into the 4.5m thick concrete roof. It's impressive in two ways: How big that bomb is and how sturdy the bunker was.
Grüß dich :) I come from the same town, i only saw that bunker from the outside. I believe these large english bombs where the only thing that could damage a bunker like that. Im not sure tho if they ever managed to damage one of the larger u-boot bunkers like the one in Brest. Compared to those, the bunker in Bremen looks tiny.
I saw a photo of a U boat pen that had been missed but the bomb went under the foundations and when it exploded it left a U boat lying on the dock as it blew it out of the water, in tact.
The bunkers mind you where considered impervious to conventional means having something like 25m of concrete followed by 10 metres of steel and about 15m rebared concrete and some open rooms to spread out the damage.
@@uniboio2437 Yeah but ultimately just an economic powerhouse like the USA could concentrate enough resources to build a nuclear bomb, i mean, even the americans had to build a second type of nuclear bomb because they had not enough uranium. So to say the least, the brits wouldn't have been able to build one (resource wise).
Mandernach Luca I’m not saying the Brits could have built a nuclear bomb at the time. America could unsurprisingly as a result of the large levels of demand it received from Britain and the rest of the world for resources which helped the US become an economic powerhouse such as the £45.5 million pound debt that Britain owed the US at the end of the war which it only finally paid off in 2006.
5:15..."on second thoughts, the kind folks over at You-tube would probably lose their collective Schnitzels if I showed you how to arm a nuclear bomb"..... Pure Gold!!!
Somehow, I don't think the knowledge of how to arm a nuclear bomb is really the hard part of getting a nuclear capability. It's not like those bombs are exactly for sale at Home Depot. Maybe if you lose your collective schnitzels you also lose the ability to tell real risks from fake ones?
1:45 'Straya! My Grandfather was a Lancaster tail gunner in the RAF. All his brothers were killed fighting in North Africa and Burma. It's good to see people keeping this in living memory.
I'm pleasantly suprised to see a video about the yorkshire air museum in my subscription's feed passing by. I worked there for a couple of months as an intern. They've got great exhibits to go and see and wonderful people working there!
I used to be in the Air Force and spent six years at RAF Church Fenton where potential pilots underwent their initial flying training, and Church Fenton's relief landing ground was RAF Elvington where the Yorkshire Air Museum has made it's home. Been to Elvington on a number of occasions and made the climb up all those steps to the ATC tower.
Mom was an RAF PBX(telephone) operator during the Battle of Britain. Originally from Brighton being sent to London was exciting, maybe a bit too so with all the air raids. She got orders to Edinburgh and said was wonderful. I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters in the early 90s to the close of the base. I really wanted to get to Brighton and Edinburgh but finances and mission had me limited to East Anglia. Thank you for a very well put video, I'm looking forward to your next. Cheers! Terry from South Carolina
3:40 - the spin was to give the bomb gyroscopic stability as it fell - this was intended to make sure that if the bomb went supersonic on the way down, it would be less likely to tumble or be diverted from its trajectory as it broke the sound barrier.
Thanks for reminding us of the real cost of war. War is often discussed as if it is a video game nowadays. I wish all servicemen and women and the civilians effected by war peace in the rest of their lives.
Often many professional soldiers enjoyed their experience of war however many volunteers or conscripts found it less so. Obviously both have their fair play of trauma so it's just down to the individual. God bless those who've served.
Aw leave him alone bless he was doing his lil song and that hes sweet an old theres times when regardless of how bad it is you have to just listen and nod
I'm a 'Kraut' myself, but I love the 'Limeys' for their kind, for their style, for the humour, for their culture. When I have to emigrate (the Germans could decide to fight Russia a third time, which I do not want to join), then I'll go to Britain and buy me a narrowboat to live on the canals. With a little practise my accent could outmatch Bismark's ;)
@@johntechwriter Not for us Germans, we're culturally very dead! Britian has lead the way in music or sports e.g. since WW2, Murica in Cinema and TV, in consumer culture etc. and so on. Today even the German protest culture is lead by the transatlantic elites, think of Greta or BLM alone! That is so sad! The elites tell our children via their media corporations when and where to protest against or pro something. The line 'Deutschland über alles' does not mean the nation Germany over all the other nations! Most people get it wrong, even Germans. It means the idea of nation building, from all the princedoms and shires, from this sad and chaotic rag rug, over all the other concepts and ideas of rule. My fellow Germans might pull them out with good, contemporary machinery and the heritage of poets, composers and thinkers/philosophers, but this nation is actually dying. Every second child is sick, has allergies etc., the education system is the same joke as the welfare state, the job market or the health care system. Corruption and degeneration are far too weak words for the mess. Might be, that a few filthy rich families can bring their offspring up and through without too much harm and degeneration, but Asia will bite our head off. After two world wars, after socialism and capitalism, after catholicism and materialism were are tired and finished. We are done!
As someone who lives on a narrowboat I think its like living in the past. However as a "live abord" with a "continious cruiser licence"" apart from the canal side pubs being shut, the lockdowns during the last year have passed me by. There are a lot of young continental Europeans living on the "cut", along with Comonwealth citizens and the odd American (a bit like the RAF during the Second World War!) .
I'll always remember the story in the bomber sqdrn books. When the "Yanks" asked how many bombs the lancaster was carrying and the brits replied "just the one", the yanks laughed and laughed .... until the lancs were wheeled out of the hangars and they saw the 11,000lb Tall boy bomb ... safe to say they stopped laughing ! Imagine if they had seen the 22,000lb grand slam!!!
24000 pound "grand slam" largest one... and I live less then a mile from the only 1 of 2 flying lancasters in the world. those rolls royce merlins give me goosebumps every time.
What a mind Barnes Wallace had! The bouncing, tallboy and grandslam bombs, geodetic structure of the wellington bomber and the R100 airship and my favourite the Swallow SST aircraft.
If you wanna do an episode on some cold war aircraft you should visit the aviation museum just outside of norwich, they have a sea vixen, ee lightning, avro Vulcan that you can climb inside, f4 phantom, and a nimrod as well as a few hunters
My mums great uncle was one of the men who flew from the airbase in ww2 and set up that museum in the 80s. My mum played with the radio in that halifax as a child.
That Victor in the background looks like a space ship compared to all the other bombers on display, and it was flying 7 years after the end of WW2. Incredible!
Wartime pushes a conservative viewpoint on designers: the military wants something that works so isn't willing to fund a "maybe", and whatever that thing is it better be ready last Thursday. There was quite a few highly advanced designed worked on that even reached prototype stage in the US like the YB-35 or XF5U but they lost out to more proven designs.
@@williammagoffin9324 I can't quite agree. It encourages a conservative mind set for the bulk of the equipment, but a minority is often used to see if promising inventions have potential. If they do they better have been in mass production yesterday …
Blitz reenactment has to be in subway. I still have hours of newsreels in mind of London burning. I don't see anything jolly there. I prefer documents dating back to those days of courage and resilience. There isn't much available about these extreme weapons so the subject has many peripheral distraction in this newsreel. I guess I may like information cut and dry too much. Sea biscuits and rum. :P
As you come from the sane land where km/m/mm rule, the pleasures of yards feet and inches can only be really be top by the idea that the US & UK fluid measurement are different sizes ie us gal appx 4L UK appx 5L......,and then there is the measurement of money...., enjoy Pounds Shillings & Pence.
Looking forward to the Yorkshire Wartime Experience this July can't recommend it enough if you have the time to spare Cheers for sharing Yorkshire will always be home to me.
When dropped from a sufficient altitude, the Tallboy and Grand Slam were capable of traveling faster than the speed of sound. The actual method of damage was not quite like a "synthetic earthquake." The bomb would explode, creating a void, which was either under the foundation or close enough to undermine the foundation. The crazy part of these bombs falling into sub pens was that they penetrated the very very heavily armored ceilings of those pens BEFORE exploding.
@@arrowup8711 No, I meant the sensation of losing that amount of weight from the middle of an aircraft, without having it forcibly removed from the middle of the aircraft itself. Perhaps similar to the belly dropping sensation when on a swing? Reduce the weight so more lift, plane should rise somewhat.
@@arrowup8711 What do you think war is about-dropping leaflets? Militaries are tasked with two missions-break things and kill people...i.e. war is hell. The enjoyment comes from taking part in the effort to stop the enemy. Are you a woke snowflake?
Earthquake Bomb was actually a bit of a misnomer. It was actually intended to "Camoflet"the target. Which is a French medieval siege Warfare term for creating a cavity under or next to a structure, causing said structure to collapse under its own weight into that cavity.
@@stevek8829 In terms of weight, Fatboy was quite a bit lighter than a grand slam. If you have to blow up a city to justify your small PP we're into psycopathy and not measuring packages anymore. ;)
@@mostevil1082 And they had to use British bomb shackles in the B-29 for both Little Boy and Fatman as the U.S. didn't have ones designed for such a weight of bomb.
Went there in January this year ,good museum especially the Halfax bomber . We were told some interesting things about the tail gunners in the Halifax which made you realise how dangerous a job it was and also the reason why so many died .
There was a great exhibit in Bletchley Park about WWII pigeons that saved many lives during the war. Several of them were highly decorated. Fascinating stuff even if it does sound odd.
The reason for the spin, which was achieved by slightly angling the fins, was that the Tallboy would 'wobble' slightly as it went through the sound barrier and the spin was to stabilise it. (According the the book 'The Dam Busters').
This is really cool! I'm not an aviation nerd, but the history side of it intrigues me. Thank you so much for showing us around Against The Odds, and I hope to attend some day.
One of the first photos you showed was of the Saumur Tunnel and embankment. Six Tallboy bombs in a bomb dump at Bardney, Lincolnshireprior to being loaded on No. 9 Squadron RAF aircraft in October or November 1944 June - August 1944[edit] Saumur rail tunnel-The sole operational north-south route on the Loire. Nineteen Tallboy-equipped and six conventionally equipped Lancasters of 617 Squadron attacked on the night of 8-9 June 1944. 617 Squadron were guided on to the target by 83 Squadron Pathfinder Force. This was the first use of the Tallboy bomb and the line was destroyed-one Tallboy bored through the hillside and exploded in the tunnel about 60 ft (18 m) below, completely blocking it. No aircraft were lost during the raid.[2]
I used to go with my men's group to a WW2 Exposition every year in Reading, PA (in the US). It was an entire airfield filled with period paraphernalia, costumes, replicas, artifacts, planes, trucks, tanks, you name it. And the people were dressed up and knowledgeable. There was even a mock battle in the sky between a Corsair and a Zero. I don't know if it still happens each year, I hope so.
Eric Taylor Watched that so many times I know the dialogue. Best bit of that scene is where she is being told off for WAAFS using the men's trenches during air raid practice and you can just see the explosions behind before the sound hits them.
@@ianmoseley9910 Yea, it's one of the great war films made in that era. Battle of Britten, Tora, Tora, Tora, Longest Day. They don't make them that way any more. There is a scene in the Longest Day where an actor playing a General was actually a veteran of D-Day. Another actor who is playing the role of the actor playing the General is seen in the film. Very meta. Now we just have abominations like Pearl Harbor.
@@erictaylor5462 How about Richard Todd (who played Guy Gibson in the Dambusters). In The Longest Day he played his own commanding officer. In one scene he,s talking to an officer called Richard Todd!!!
Awesome. These reenactments are great and should be passed down from generation to generation all over the world .Be proud of yourself and your heritage.
I often feel the the works of Wallace are not given enough light, except the bouncing bomb. Thanks for mentioning the Grand Slam, now what about his plane design?
Bismarck idk if you'll reply but will you ever do more IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad with TBLF (that goes up on someone's channel)? I absolutely adore that content, and I find it kind of saddening seeing as you're lacking in a lot of Bo's content. You add this certain degree of specialty to the videos you are in with Bo and Sturmling, and I often find it far more interesting. If you reply, I'd feel happy, and if you're in another Bo Time video even if you don't reply, I'll be happy.
hi did you know that entire squadrons of mosquitos got converted to carry nothing but cookies. back in the 80s I used to shoot with a guy that crewed as navigator on them. he said that when the thing was dropped the aircraft would jump up almost the thousand feet. I never completely believed that bit of the story though.
@@tommyfred6180 I've sometimes wondered... What if half the production capacity devoted to heavy bombers went to Mosquitos instead? A B-17 only carried 4,000 lb bomb load to Berlin, and I understand these 4,000 lb carrying Mosquitos could reach Berlin. And fly too high and fast for German fighters, certainly too high for flack.
There used to be an 'inert' Grand Slam on display at the entry gate outside RAF Scampton, close to where I live. It had the detonator removed of course. When they were widening the road, they had to lift it out the way to relocate it, but it was much heavier than expected. Turned out the detonator HAD been removed, but it was still full of the 9000lbs of explosives!
@@timmason7430 It is an important distinction. Timely means it happens at just the right time whilst time-consuming means it takes a long time to finish. That is the kind of error in English that could see a spy arrested.
@@timmason7430 That's why it's safe to criticize the usage. If he was a native speaker there's a chance he would take it as a personal attack. He is likely to take it as help, which is good, because it is.
Well, I'm glad you're talking 'bout bombs, Herr B. ;-) I could never understand one thing: how any aerial bomb, especially heavy one, can penetrate as heavy armoured target as a bunker, or a battle ship (or many floors of the big block of flats) - without being damaged and still be able to explode...??? I'm a Pole living in UK for 13 yrs, I think you're doing a great job! Well done, and I hope you'll find an occasion to answer my doubts. Greetings!
Proud yorkshireman here. We are very proud of our military history in Yorkshire, with catterick army base amongst others nestled well within our county borders. God bless.
There's a really good book by Stephen Flower, Barnes Wallis's Bombs that covers much of the development and production of the bombs. A lot of it is taken up with very good rundowns on every mission flown using them. It's so good i can't get it back off my dad.
Thanks! Good presetntation. I particularly like hearing about Yorkshire Air Museum. If I'd known when I was there, I'd have visited. I did Cosford Air Show and IWM Duxford. Keep providing more info to more aviation buffs.
I have property in Fl USA. It is located 3 miles north of a designated stride range. Active during ww2 until 48'. A 500 lb. One was dropped on it. The crater is still there at least 60 ft across and 15 deep. Had to get the property searched for more ordnance. Was a trip.
9:10 The Bridge is located in Bielefeld. Allied Bombers tried to destroy the bridge for four years. Only after using Tallboys the where succesful, but a redundant railway track had just been finished a couple of months earlier (3km North of the bridge, just outside of this picture) and the only thing beeing achived by attaking the bridge was killing civillians.
Elvington is a great place: it's where Hammond had his first big crash, F1 used to test there, it hosts all sorts of supercar days ... want to drive a MP12/4C then an Aventador? No probs. The Vulcan came during it's penultimate flight and did loops from the airfield to just past my village, eventually over-flying every house in my village at 100ft with the bomb doors open. It scared the bejesus out of the dog! Traffic on the A1079 (the York to Hull road) would stop and watch the Vulcan.
That version of "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer" was awful. It's supposed to be a mournful ballad, not the Lindy Hop. My dad, who served as a ground-based radio operator in the AAC, mostly in Belgium, had a record album of WWII songs he would play occasionally, and that song was on it, sung by a male choir. Even as a little kid, I found it very moving. From the lyrics, I envisioned an airplane that had only one wing remaining, but was still somehow able to fly. I think they'd need more than a prayer though under those circumstances.
hey Military Aviation history you probably wont see this but I have a ww2 brodie helmet that have the words | COW BOY and "real western" any help to where its from? (I am candian)
There's a tiny error regarding the WE.177. There are only two of the rarer *_A_* model training rounds on display, neither of which was seen in the video. The WE.177A was the 10kt version used by The Royal Navy and one is displayed at The Boscombe Down Collection while the other is at Orford Ness. The 450kt B model training rounds, like the one at the Yorkshire Air Museum, are all over the place - Eden Camp, Gosport, Farnborough, RNAS Yeovilton, Duxford, Sunderland (seen this one personally), Cosford, Warwickshire . . . Even The Spams have one over in New Mexico. There's only one (200kt Only deployed in Germany) C model training round that I'm aware of, at The RAF Museum, Hendon, although there may be more of them sprinkled in with the Bs.
I grew up in London and in those days there were still plenty of bomb sites. To give you an indication of the period, the trees growing there were about 4inch or 100mm in diameter. We used to play on all this derelict land. One of of our favourite places was an abandoned factory by the railway tracks. I don't what they manufactured there but it had it's own siding and platform. To cut a long story short, when that area was being developed they discovered a 1000lb unexploded bomb right where we used to play. It's lucky that little kids do not weigh very much! Referring back to the "Grand Slam", what was the name of that hemispherical German bunker that was made to subside by an earthquake bomb?
Interesting too me that the people actually involved in these Wars went through hell every day even when they returned home suffering constant mental agony and traumatic stress while people who have never served come to places like this to play pretend and wish they were in the war... These reenactments make war feel like a feel good movie lol.
well, on the bright side reenactments can be seen as fun and respect to those who actually fought, and show more people a taste of what it was like for them, certainly better then disrespecting what they did and fought for.
I can thoroughly recommend a book called The Dambusters by Paul Brickhill. Not only does it cover the dambusting exploits of 617 squadron it also covers their eventual role as a specialist squadron flying planes adapted to carry the Tallboy and, eventually, Grand Slam bombs. It also covers the people behind the machinery, people like 'Talking Bomb' who trained the squadron in the use of the SABS (Stabilising Automatic Bomb Sight) which allowed crews to get an average accuracy of 60 to 70 yds.
Bit puzzled? I always understood that the GRAND SLAM was the only bomb christened and "Earthquake bomb"? The "Tallboy" was designed to burrow through ferro concrete, ie U Boat pens etc while the Grand Slam was meant to go deep underground and blow a cavity under a target thus removing the foundations so it collapsed. There is one tale of a 10 tonner being dropped and blowing up (or more accurately) collapsing a target but when photos were taken the next day there was no debris! The explosion had lifted 100's of tons of earth making a huge crater into which the target collapsed, then the earth fell back down some of it covering the wreckage so it appeared to have disappeared!! Credit for info to the book The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill Thanks.
