The courage and skill of our RAF pilots of long ago prove they could handle it head on during those dark days I Salute them all too gone but never forgotten
Absolute hero’s of your nation. As an American I can only watch in Aah at their performance. They were doing something never done/tried before and under fire.
@@sonnyburnett8725 don't forget some American pilots joined the RAF to get a piece of the action before the USA entered the second World so salute to them also from me across the pond too
@@pdwcave they were used in the infamous "Operation Chastise", where they were used to blow up german dams. They bounce, or skip to the target & sink to a preset depth where they detonate close to the wall, the water amplifying the explosion, shockwave etc, destroying it.
They were standing like 20 meters from the target and 10 meters from the bombs trajectory. Freaking crazy, if the plane had only been slightly off target.
Incredible footage! Those observers in the back ground had never of steel. If that was repeated in todays PC world they would have had to be 5 miles away wearing 2 hard hats , A high vis jacket and a clip board in each hand with 23 Health and Safety forms on it!
Bro, how the fuck did you bring PC culture into it? You’re aware, if those bad asses had been offered safety precautions, they would’ve taken it. Just like today, when time is of the essence, there are going to be people to gladly step up. The bit about the clipboard did get me though lol
Imagine being one of a ships AAA crew and see that Highball hurtling towards you. Bit difficult to keep your eye on the target aircraft rather then the ball.
Ashley walk is worth a wander. They also tested Grandslam/Tallboy up there against dummy sub pens (now covered with earth). The hard standing and observers bunker for one range target is still there as are night bombing nav aids (safety markers to give crews confirmation of range run in direction). Our forest is full of history. Occasionally bits get dug up and blown up but finding shrapnel, mortar bomb tails or grenade plugs is a real possibility in some areas
They aren't actually sub pens though. That's just a name they have become known as. Was actually a structure to test the strength of air raid shelter designs against bombs.
Truly rapid iteration requires, entails risk. This is why the technology has slowed since those remarkable men passed. Their acceptance of the unacceptably dangerous whilst in pursuit of the greater good was their unique talent and calling.
Footage l have never seen . Thankyou for giving us the privilege of viewing what must have been top secret film. Any comment l would have made has already been taken care of by other viewers. And once again thankyou UA-cam.
My great uncle was Lancaster pilot during Ww2 for Dam busters it was a highly secretive and specialised program I remember a photo of his plane with two lights one in the middle and one on the tail of his bomber I never knew what they were for until I grew up very brave men test pilots and the dam busters alike
618 were based initially at RAF Skitten in Scotland. For the Loch Striven trials the aircraft were based at RAF Turnberry, initially against the obsolete French warship Courbet and then HMS Malaya . Trials were also carried out at Wells-next-the-Sea using RAF Beccles. Here crews were also instructed in simulated aircraft carrier landings prior to deployment to Australia. 618 left for Oz on board HMS Fencer & Striker on 31 Oct 1944. 618 were then based at RAAF Narromine near Sydney. Operation Oxtail was the planned use of Highball against the Japanese fleet, but no attacks took place and 618 were disbanded on 21 July 1945. Politics? The live Highballs were destroyed in static explosions and the aircraft/special equipment scrapped/dumped at sea. Baseball was a smaller, third version of the "bouncing bomb" for the Navy to be tube launched from ships to replace torpedoes.
He had joined a Handley-Page Hampden bomber squadron shortly before WWII began, within two years he was the only surviving pilot from that time. He then became a night-fighter pilot and used RADAR to intercept German bombers. THEN he commanded a mixed squadron of Avro Manchesters and Lancsters until finally he was 'tour-expired'. Normally that would have resulted in him becoming an instructor pilot, a time at HQ, then perhaps another ground command of a Wing of two or more Squadrons. He was asked to form 617 Squadron and make 'one more trip'. After the Dams raid with 617, he was sent on a tour of America and Britain to make publicity speeches, resulting in him choosing to returning to operations as a Master Bomber, flying a smaller Mosquito marker aircraft. On about his third or so trip, he did not return. One of very few airmen to survive two tours and another as a night-fighter, he chose to remain flying.
The accuracy on these things seem pretty freaking insane. Considering they can be used on both land and water, and with different types of planes at different altitudes. Granted that the accuracy is far from 100%.
Dropping a bomb on HMS Malaya at that time in the reserve and you can see goes straight through her side. But Malaya was returned to service after this test as a standby reserve for Normandy.
The First Men in History that invented this Technique was Fatih Sultan Mehmed in 1453 he bounced canon balls over the Strait of Bosporus the Water in to the walls of Constantinople.
Strange but true fact... These big steel balls they were dropping were only slightly smaller than those on the guys standing in the background at 2:43 .
They were supposed to sink down the side of the vessel then explode. But they had such inertia that they went straight through the ship's armour plate. I think that is why they weren't practical.
One of these 'test' bombs was found off Reculver in the mud still intact not many years ago and recovered, by (I think) the army. I presume it is in a museum somewhere, but where I don't know.
Fun fact: In the movie The Dambusters, 617 Squadron's Lancasters were shown equipped with the spherical variant of the Highball as seen here. In reality, the bombs 617 used on the dams raid were cylindrical, not spherical, with roughly the proportions of a 44-gallon drum (but a lot bigger, of course). It had been discovered that the cylindrical shape was less prone to oscillating, or wobbling, after each bounce. Unless the spherical bomb was dropped precisely, these wobbles would get worse with each successive bounce, and this adversely affected the accuracy and travel distance of the bomb. 617 was depicted using the spherical variant in the movie because at the time of filming (1955), the cylindrical version was still classified by the RAF as Top Secret.
Barnes Wallis believed the weapons (Upkeep and Highball) should be spherical in shape as per his early experiments and trials in late 1942/early 43 at Chesil Beach. To create the spherical shape of Upkeep (the dam busting version) pine staves with steel ties were strapped around the cylindrical mine similar to a wooden beer barrel. Highball was a different construction altogether. During trials at Reculver in 1943, the staves kept breaking off when impacting the water. Eventually in April 1943 (a month ahead of the raid) it was seen that the Upkeep kept bouncing despite the loss of the staves and so the cylinder version was used on the raid.
@@Markus_Andrew My sources are the wartime diaries and paperwork of Lt Cdr Leo Lane RNVR (my wife's uncle) who was a trials officer and a part of Barnes Wallis's wartime team. He organised the various trials (mainly Highball) around the UK through to the end of the war. I have a probably unique pine stave from an Upkeep hung in my garden shed!
@@johnanderson3410 Thank you so much for sharing, it's most interesting indeed to hear from someone who has such a close tie to these events. I have been fascinated by this subject since my adolescence (I'm almost 62 now). It really is an extraordinary piece of history. Sounds like you have an extraordinary piece of history yourself, right there in your garden shed!
@@Markus_Andrew A few years ago I had a small brass engraved plaque made to go on the stave to record what it was. My children and grandchildren are fully aware of its importance, but I did not want someone in the future to just assume it was bit of old wood to be chopped up for kindling!
That thing went into the ship like a hot knife through butter. Very innovative and well ahead of its time. It seems to use the impact as an acceleration! It seems there is some type of back spin that, at impact, used the impulse energy to tighten a coil maybe? The impulse force is many thousands of times powerful than simple kinetic deformations/sound/and light output/resultant forces that happen with normal collisions. It’s part of the reason knee joint fluid is so amazing. A runner experiences impulse forces in his/her knees constantly. Without the amazing combination of cartilage and joint fluid, bones would shatter after just a short period of use. Very interesting that they chose ‘bouncing’ method for landing at least one of the mars rovers. Maybe they reversed the intention of the bouncing bomb (added a forward spin to decelerate more effectively).
Upkeep and Highball used backward spin when dropped on water. When Highball was tested for dropping on the ground, forward spin was used. There is video available showing tests where they tried to bowl Highballs into a tunnel. I do not know whether the video is available online but it can be seen at Brooklands Museum (brooklandsmuseum.com) in the Barnes Wallis display.
Actually they were using bouncing bombs even in the Revolutionary war. They would have cannon that were low to the water surface, and they would heat the balls red hot in a furnace before firing them at ships. They have one at Ft Washington outside of DC.
Couple of things heated shot was not bounced, it was used to set fire to the ship it was aimed at. By embedding itself into planking. The concept of bouncing the cannonball off the water was used for several centuries. Nelson is said to have used it to great effect in the Battle of the Nile against the French fleet.
@@ianb9028 I've just been re-reading Paul Brickhill's "The Dam Busters" (which tells the story of 617 squadron right to the end of the war in Europe, not just the dams raid). He reckons that on one occasion at least, German Flak gunners bounced shells off water when trying to hit low-flying Lancasters. Whether that was entirely true, or author's licence, I don't know; he was a good writer though, and a one-time Spitfire pilot; shot down and became a POW, and was involved in the prisoner escape plan that became "The Great Escape". He wrote a book of that name on which the film was based.
Amazing. And the stones of those aircrew. The immediate left and up maneuver after release was the result of an earlier test, when the bomb flew up after the initial bounce and destroyed the aircraft. Not pretty.
You get a hint of it in some of these videos, but there was a real danger to the dropping aircraft from water or dirt, thrown up by the bomb, or the bomb itself, hitting the aircraft. The RAF nearly lost a Wellington (?) when water hit the tailplanes, and the Americans did lose an A26 and all four crew members when the bomb itself bounced up and tore the back end off the plane. Footage of both incidents can be found on YT. Explains why the pilots were keen to get away from the damned thing!
That would have been the bow armor so it was much thinner than if they'd have pegged her maybe 30 feet closer to the turret say bout half way down the barrels length. Her REAL armor would have started there. give or take depends on the ship but pretty much all BB's had thin(in comparison) bow and stern armor.
What scares me the most is two events in the films. A) The bloody bomb after bouncing away from the wall, has enough kinetic energy to roll back for another go at the wall. B)The people standing around near these tests. Didn't they know "Murphy's Maxim". "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the WORST possible time."
There's another video on YT of an A26 dropping a skipping bomb on water from a much lower altitude. (Maybe 15 or 20 feet.) The bomb bounces and takes the tail off the aircraft, which hits the water at high speed with 2 or 3 seconds of the drop, instantly killing the crew. This was dangerous stuff, and no one knew exactly what would happen.
That was their screw-up. The minimum drop height had already been very rigidly set during trials, then some yanks thought they could do it better. Only they didn't.
About 5 million Joules kinetic energy on impact, just over the detonation energy of a kg of TNT, sufficient to vaporise a fair bit of concrete and produce quite a flash of light.
Featured in the highly fictionalised film Mosquito Squadron using the last three operational Mosquitoes of the RAF Meteorological Flight ( I believe ) I don't think Highball was used operationally on land though .
Take another look. It shows 6 apparent blades but it's a ghosting artifact of the rpm and the camera's shutter speed. They're three-bladed props, standard on all Mosquitoes.
I don't understand why you're asking the comment section of a YT video when you could just google your question & have an answer in a minute or two. What's wrong with you?
J2s best friend. I seem to remember 617 squadron flying as low as 20feet duringg dome of the tests in the lake district. Another's interesting fact is that the bomb aiming sight was made out of a chopped up coat hanger and some nails.
There were two designs- Upkeep- dam buster bomb, looked like an oil drum and Highball- carried by Mosquitoes- designed for use against shipping- that’s what you see in this film. It was never actually used in action unlike the much bigger Upkeep bomb(dam buster).
It would have been nice to have seen the inside of the ship to see what damage it did even though it did not explode, a 1mt round ball hitting at 200mph would have been devastating.
The Americans tested them too and one of their planes was taken out by a bomb on the bounce and catching the tail ...too low. There's footage of the plane crashing on here somewhere. A Douglas Invader, IIRC.
As you say Highball was tested on the Douglas A26 Invader in the UK (Wells next the Sea) and then in the USA (Code word Speedeee), but the A26 crashed on test in the USA (too low & as you say Highball broke off the tail). The US then lost interest. Highball was also tested on the Gruman Avenger at Wells. 618 (Highball) Sqn were sent to Australia in 1945 (but were not permitted to attack the Japanese fleet as the Pacific was the USA's area influence?) before the atomic bomb attacks on Japan ended the war. The Mosquitos, equipment and live Highballs were subsequently destroyed in Oz.
Crazy to see folks standing g down range from the point of impact. That thing could hit something under the ground and go off course. Hitting a person would splatter them even if it didnt explode.
The Tirpitz was docked in a relatively narrow waterway, with mountains close on each side. Midget submarines were able to damage her, US Navy planes attacked her, several RAF bombing raids attacked her, she was moved, reduced in importance and finally finished off by RAF Lancasters using the Grand Slam 22,00lb bombs from high altitude. Look up RAF Tirpitz Grand Slam for the film shot during the raid.
hydrostatic pistols for the anti-ship version. they were meant to impact the belt armor, sink to a set depth against the hull, and detonate below the armor. don't know what the plan was for the proposed use on land against rail tunnels.
The de Havilland Aircraft Museum at Salisbury Hall UK has an original Highball on show recovered from Loch Striven. It has a very nice flat spot where it struck the ship. You should also see the video of them trying to bounce them into railway tunnels. Very very dangerous for aircrew!
The tunnel trials took place against a rail tunnel at Maenclochog in Wales on 7 October 1943. A Mosquito flown by Shorty Longbottom and base at RAF Angle dropped 12 inert forward spun stores. Barnes Wallis, Rear Admiral Renouf and others vowed the drops. The thinking was to possibly use them against railway tunnels in Northern Italy. Explosive trials also took place at disused tunnels at Toldish in Cornwall and at Moss near Wrexham.
Some of the people close range were possibly the scientists of the time. Science is always about catching a good and replicable result in a sea of tests, errors and horrible fails
I have the wartime diaries of Lt Cdr Leo Lane RNVR (my wife's uncle) who was the trials officer for Highball ( also Upkeep and Tallboy). He recorded all the trial locations in the diaries including Ashley Walk. Barnes Wallis was present at some of the trials. Other on land locations included Porton Down and Maenclochog rail tunnel.
@@autodidact537 Sometimes people have ideas not mentioned in Google. I like to explore every avenue from dictionaries to encyclopedias as well. Also my browser is Google Chrome so in effect I use Google everyday. Thank you for your question.
It's unlikely that an Upkeep would hold together at that speed; they were welded steel barrels. It was also found on the Operation Chastise attacks that the explosive filling was asymmetrical, leading to serious vibration when spinning the bomb up before release. It affected several crew's ability to aim.
617 squadron were the Dambusters using the Upkeep bomb. The RAF also formed 618 squadron for the Highball bombs flying Mosquitoes. They were primarily anti-shipping.
@@mikemason746 was that just the prototype? If it hit above waterline it wouldn't cause great damage enough to sink a ship as they have watertight bulkheads. Try think about Titanic hitting immovable iceberg.
@@mikemason746 last part of film explains the bomb would act just like Dambuster bomb and with perhaps half ton explosive inside would break the ship's back. OK for calm water but what about ships in big waves?
The bombs being designed to take out capital ships and the dams were basically depth charges. For attacks on ships they were designed to stop on impact with the vessel, drop down and would move under the ship due to the residual spin then break the back of the ship.
All Highball trials stores were inert (The same with the dam busting Upkeep weapon-apart from one!). The fuses were set off by water pressure. The Highball was meant to strike the ships hull on its armoured belt and then due to the rotation, crawl under the hull to where there was little armour before the pressure fuse operated and detonated Highball. On one occasion at Loch Striven a Highball penetrated the hull of HMA Malaya but that was never the intention.
A truly devastating weapon, too bad that once it was in operation the Italians they were going to try it on first quit. So they took it north after SMS Tirpitz, but she got sunk by a Tall-Boy first. So they packed up and went to the Pacific, but by the time they arrived pretty much all Japanese surfaces ships were sunk and two Cities were evaporated... o_0 One might wonder if the world at large just didn't want to get hit by a bouncing "Highball"... >_
@@ditzydoo4378 Yes, lots of people make that mistake. I do actually have some 8mm cine film that Barnes Wallace shot during the testing of this project. Several people have asked me to put in on here. So I will. But I cannot say when it will be. Watch this space for further details.
i don't get it either. i've seen the same thing several times on one of the shotgun channels. exactly the same: high speed high-energy impacts. YOYOY??
@@raymondo162 The trial Highballs were inert but metal cased and rotated at high speed. The flash is a result of them striking the metal faced target wall which replicated the side of a warship.
That is absolutely terrifying
1943 observers were fine, they were wearing safety goggles.
And masks
"They lied, the googles do nothing" Raineer Wolfcastle.
@@andyh1219 ...and steel toecapped wellies.
The courage and skill of our RAF pilots of long ago prove they could handle it head on during those dark days I Salute them all too gone but never forgotten
Absolute hero’s of your nation. As an American I can only watch in Aah at their performance. They were doing something never done/tried before and under fire.
@@sonnyburnett8725 don't forget some American pilots joined the RAF to get a piece of the action before the USA entered the second World so salute to them also from me across the pond too
@@daviddou1408 DECEMBER 2020 thanks for the info
I never knew they tested this on land too,amazing film!
zghvbn1 Man is a genius in his approach when it comes to killing other men. Fantastic piece of history here!!
the pilots and crew were just amazing ,thanks for bringing me back to this wonderful footage after a year!
I believe they were going to use these bombs on train tunnels.
there was a very interesting bombing technique used in ww2 known as "skip bombing"
@@pdwcave they were used in the infamous "Operation Chastise", where they were used to blow up german dams. They bounce, or skip to the target & sink to a preset depth where they detonate close to the wall, the water amplifying the explosion, shockwave etc, destroying it.
Never mind the bomb......how close were those men standing to the target wall.
They were standing like 20 meters from the target and 10 meters from the bombs trajectory. Freaking crazy, if the plane had only been slightly off target.
@@watcherzero5256 they were dummy warheaads
It's OK, they'd done a Risk Assessment. The result was...
It was *risky!*
If only 'elf 'n safety had been in charge of World War II. Think how many unnecessary workplace injuries could have been avoided.
So close they felt a breeze as it rolled by
Incredible footage! Those observers in the back ground had never of steel. If that was repeated in todays PC world they would have had to be 5 miles away wearing 2 hard hats , A high vis jacket and a clip board in each hand with 23 Health and Safety forms on it!
prolly along with triplicate, fully-signed waivers
Bro, how the fuck did you bring PC culture into it?
You’re aware, if those bad asses had been offered safety precautions, they would’ve taken it. Just like today, when time is of the essence, there are going to be people to gladly step up.
The bit about the clipboard did get me though lol
Standing in the background wearing Gaberdeen Macks and Stout Brogues Virtually indestructible!!
They went up Everest like that. Shorter Gaberdeen jackets though, and spikes on the brogues.
Legend says they're still standing there now.
pedantically speaking, they were in fact wearing gaberdine macs (macintoshes). also: they were ALL called Reg. true dat.
Takes "keeping the eye on the ball" to a whole new level! 😨
The Mosquito in my eyes was the sexiest aircraft of the Second World War.
P - 51 Mustang
@@marine4lyfe85 a close second I agree.
Sorry ,but the P-38 beats them all!!!!!!!!
Without doubt the most VERSATILE allied a/c of Second World War....
Cries in P-51 P38 F4U Mig-3 Do. 335 ( but that's just my opinion)
Imagine a line of bombers dropping these along a front line...
Imagine being one of a ships AAA crew and see that Highball hurtling towards you. Bit difficult to keep your eye on the target aircraft rather then the ball.
Thank you for sharing
Love the Mossie.
Ashley walk is worth a wander. They also tested Grandslam/Tallboy up there against dummy sub pens (now covered with earth). The hard standing and observers bunker for one range target is still there as are night bombing nav aids (safety markers to give crews confirmation of range run in direction). Our forest is full of history. Occasionally bits get dug up and blown up but finding shrapnel, mortar bomb tails or grenade plugs is a real possibility in some areas
They aren't actually sub pens though. That's just a name they have become known as. Was actually a structure to test the strength of air raid shelter designs against bombs.
So it appears.
nfknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/61.pdf
It's not just your country. It's all countries participating in the war
What isn't? Come on, get it off your chest.
So cool, those bombs skipping on the water like that!
Truly rapid iteration requires, entails risk. This is why the technology has slowed since those remarkable men passed. Their acceptance of the unacceptably dangerous whilst in pursuit of the greater good was their unique talent and calling.
Elon Musk says, "hold my beer"
@@Mishn0 When did he risk his life?
@@dulls8475 , Kinda missing the point, aren’t you!
@@sonnyburnett8725 Kinda not...
The American tests resulted in the loss of at least two aircraft when the bomb bounced into the bottom of the slower American bombers…
Footage l have never seen . Thankyou for giving us the privilege of viewing what must have been top secret film. Any comment l would have made has already been taken care of by other viewers. And once again thankyou UA-cam.
My great uncle was Lancaster pilot during Ww2 for Dam busters it was a highly secretive and specialised program I remember a photo of his plane with two lights one in the middle and one on the tail of his bomber I never knew what they were for until I grew up very brave men test pilots and the dam busters alike
kkk
Just learned about those lights in geometry class!
Fascinating films. I always loved these types of historical documents.
I would crap my pants if I saw that thing skipping towards my ship
618 were based initially at RAF Skitten in Scotland. For the Loch Striven trials the aircraft were based at RAF Turnberry, initially against the obsolete French warship Courbet and then HMS Malaya . Trials were also carried out at Wells-next-the-Sea using RAF Beccles. Here crews were also instructed in simulated aircraft carrier landings prior to deployment to Australia. 618 left for Oz on board HMS Fencer & Striker on 31 Oct 1944. 618 were then based at RAAF Narromine near Sydney. Operation Oxtail was the planned use of Highball against the Japanese fleet, but no attacks took place and 618 were disbanded on 21 July 1945. Politics? The live Highballs were destroyed in static explosions and the aircraft/special equipment scrapped/dumped at sea. Baseball was a smaller, third version of the "bouncing bomb" for the Navy to be tube launched from ships to replace torpedoes.
Point of definition: The observers were in the "Foreground", not the background.
watch the video before the one you are referring to
Guy Gibson was 24 when he led Operation CHASTISE in May 1943. 24.
Rest in peace.
My first name is Gibson
He had joined a Handley-Page Hampden bomber squadron shortly before WWII began, within two years he was the only surviving pilot from that time.
He then became a night-fighter pilot and used RADAR to intercept German bombers.
THEN he commanded a mixed squadron of Avro Manchesters and Lancsters until finally he was 'tour-expired'.
Normally that would have resulted in him becoming an instructor pilot, a time at HQ, then perhaps another ground command of a Wing of two or more Squadrons.
He was asked to form 617 Squadron and make 'one more trip'.
After the Dams raid with 617, he was sent on a tour of America and Britain to make publicity speeches, resulting in him choosing to returning to operations as a Master Bomber, flying a smaller Mosquito marker aircraft. On about his third or so trip, he did not return.
One of very few airmen to survive two tours and another as a night-fighter, he chose to remain flying.
@@stevetheduck1425 your the type of guy to write an essay but double the length of what it was meant to be
The accuracy on these things seem pretty freaking insane. Considering they can be used on both land and water, and with different types of planes at different altitudes. Granted that the accuracy is far from 100%.
I live facing Loch striven. Apparently there are bouncing bombs on the sea bed, left over from practise runs.
H.M.S. Malaya: "That's enough. Playtime's over."
lovley shot of the mossie,there is also footage of a lancaster getting its tail torn off by the bigger balls during testing ,being to low
Apparently 618squadron that was tasked with delivering highball was based for a brief time at RAF beccles and used the main runway for dropping trials
@James Satchwill 618 were the Highball squadron
Dropping a bomb on HMS Malaya at that time in the reserve and you can see goes straight through her side. But Malaya was returned to service after this test as a standby reserve for Normandy.
Thats Malaya is it? I thought it was a QE class looking at the guns.
It's amazing that there were dudes just standing there observing.
Kind of like running with the bulls.
Reminds me of those spinning balls of destruction from the movie Battleship!
Wht admit to watching that horseshit?
Pretty simple, but destoyes targets with very high precision.
Put the video in 2x, and the video will turn into 60fps
The First Men in History that invented this Technique was Fatih Sultan Mehmed in 1453 he bounced canon balls over the Strait of Bosporus the Water in to the walls of Constantinople.
The Mosquito a fantastic aircraft. These bombs in the video were not for the Ruhr dams
Strange but true fact... These big steel balls they were dropping were only slightly smaller than those on the guys standing in the background at 2:43 .
Its crazy that this type of bomb didn't catch on
that thing is fucking terrifying imagine 40 of them all bouncing through your city then exploding
They were supposed to sink down the side of the vessel then explode. But they had such inertia that they went straight through the ship's armour plate. I think that is why they weren't practical.
The reason they didn't get deployed was that they were destined for the Japanese but the surrender came before deployment
Wow. The Mosquito is so nice and beautiful. :D
Best regards from NorthEastGermany
is it too pacifist to suggest: so nice and beautiful job they did on dresden ??
@@raymondo162 I Like the Airplane, Not the War !!!
Dude it punched a hole through that ship wall like it was nothing. Cannot imagine that smashing through the wall right next to me
4.22 All that because they lost the key to the toilet door.
Man, is that a crazy ball or something. It sure does bounces alot.
One of these 'test' bombs was found off Reculver in the mud still intact not many years ago and recovered, by (I think) the army. I presume it is in a museum somewhere, but where I don't know.
www.kentonline.co.uk/herne-bay/news/bomb-found-on-beach-used-by-dambusters-187746/
This one ?
I bet that made an interesting sound!
Fun fact: In the movie The Dambusters, 617 Squadron's Lancasters were shown equipped with the spherical variant of the Highball as seen here. In reality, the bombs 617 used on the dams raid were cylindrical, not spherical, with roughly the proportions of a 44-gallon drum (but a lot bigger, of course). It had been discovered that the cylindrical shape was less prone to oscillating, or wobbling, after each bounce. Unless the spherical bomb was dropped precisely, these wobbles would get worse with each successive bounce, and this adversely affected the accuracy and travel distance of the bomb. 617 was depicted using the spherical variant in the movie because at the time of filming (1955), the cylindrical version was still classified by the RAF as Top Secret.
Barnes Wallis believed the weapons (Upkeep and Highball) should be spherical in shape as per his early experiments and trials in late 1942/early 43 at Chesil Beach. To create the spherical shape of Upkeep (the dam busting version) pine staves with steel ties were strapped around the cylindrical mine similar to a wooden beer barrel. Highball was a different construction altogether. During trials at Reculver in 1943, the staves kept breaking off when impacting the water. Eventually in April 1943 (a month ahead of the raid) it was seen that the Upkeep kept bouncing despite the loss of the staves and so the cylinder version was used on the raid.
@@johnanderson3410 Excellent info, cheers!
@@Markus_Andrew My sources are the wartime diaries and paperwork of Lt Cdr Leo Lane RNVR (my wife's uncle) who was a trials officer and a part of Barnes Wallis's wartime team. He organised the various trials (mainly Highball) around the UK through to the end of the war. I have a probably unique pine stave from an Upkeep hung in my garden shed!
@@johnanderson3410 Thank you so much for sharing, it's most interesting indeed to hear from someone who has such a close tie to these events. I have been fascinated by this subject since my adolescence (I'm almost 62 now). It really is an extraordinary piece of history.
Sounds like you have an extraordinary piece of history yourself, right there in your garden shed!
@@Markus_Andrew A few years ago I had a small brass engraved plaque made to go on the stave to record what it was. My children and grandchildren are fully aware of its importance, but I did not want someone in the future to just assume it was bit of old wood to be chopped up for kindling!
That thing went into the ship like a hot knife through butter. Very innovative and well ahead of its time. It seems to use the impact as an acceleration! It seems there is some type of back spin that, at impact, used the impulse energy to tighten a coil maybe? The impulse force is many thousands of times powerful than simple kinetic deformations/sound/and light output/resultant forces that happen with normal collisions. It’s part of the reason knee joint fluid is so amazing. A runner experiences impulse forces in his/her knees constantly. Without the amazing combination of cartilage and joint fluid, bones would shatter after just a short period of use. Very interesting that they chose ‘bouncing’ method for landing at least one of the mars rovers. Maybe they reversed the intention of the bouncing bomb (added a forward spin to decelerate more effectively).
Upkeep and Highball used backward spin when dropped on water. When Highball was tested for dropping on the ground, forward spin was used. There is video available showing tests where they tried to bowl Highballs into a tunnel. I do not know whether the video is available online but it can be seen at Brooklands Museum (brooklandsmuseum.com) in the Barnes Wallis display.
Actually they were using bouncing bombs even in the Revolutionary war. They would have cannon that were low to the water surface, and they would heat the balls red hot in a furnace before firing them at ships. They have one at Ft Washington outside of DC.
Couple of things heated shot was not bounced, it was used to set fire to the ship it was aimed at. By embedding itself into planking. The concept of bouncing the cannonball off the water was used for several centuries. Nelson is said to have used it to great effect in the Battle of the Nile against the French fleet.
@@davidacseager I have seen the tunnel film online and it was amazing I was looking for it again and ended up here, so I do not know where I saw it
@@ianb9028 I've just been re-reading Paul Brickhill's "The Dam Busters" (which tells the story of 617 squadron right to the end of the war in Europe, not just the dams raid). He reckons that on one occasion at least, German Flak gunners bounced shells off water when trying to hit low-flying Lancasters. Whether that was entirely true, or author's licence, I don't know; he was a good writer though, and a one-time Spitfire pilot; shot down and became a POW, and was involved in the prisoner escape plan that became "The Great Escape". He wrote a book of that name on which the film was based.
The observers were actually in the foreground.
Amazing. And the stones of those aircrew. The immediate left and up maneuver after release was the result of an earlier test, when the bomb flew up after the initial bounce and destroyed the aircraft. Not pretty.
link pls
ua-cam.com/video/PCGpzRzY7fY/v-deo.html
The Douglas A26 Invader that lost it's tail to a Highball / Speedee bomb was in April 1945, after the British Highball tests.
:when bowling just isn't enough anymore...this would have been such a terrifying sight to see barreling down on you!
You get a hint of it in some of these videos, but there was a real danger to the dropping aircraft from water or dirt, thrown up by the bomb, or the bomb itself, hitting the aircraft. The RAF nearly lost a Wellington (?) when water hit the tailplanes, and the Americans did lose an A26 and all four crew members when the bomb itself bounced up and tore the back end off the plane. Footage of both incidents can be found on YT. Explains why the pilots were keen to get away from the damned thing!
Lancs also received damaged tail surfaces IIRC from the Upkeep mines water plume. Wasn't Highball used on the Gestapo prison at Amiens?
High stakes bowling
Those mosquito pilots were bloody good
Image thinking “lol they missed” and then seeing a freaking bom bouncing to you.
4:58 did that bomb just go THROUGH the armour of a warship? damn
That would have been the bow armor so it was much thinner than if they'd have pegged her maybe 30 feet closer to the turret say bout half way down the barrels length. Her REAL armor would have started there. give or take depends on the ship but pretty much all BB's had thin(in comparison) bow and stern armor.
I am so impressed that if I ever have a son or daughter I will name them "Highball"
I wonder if any of these bounced back up and it the plane?
What scares me the most is two events in the films. A) The bloody bomb after bouncing away from the wall, has enough kinetic energy to roll back for another go at the wall. B)The people standing around near these tests. Didn't they know "Murphy's Maxim". "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the WORST possible time."
The Axis powers could never have conceived of the effectiveness of delivering a good yorker in battle...
I'm guessing that's a cricket term?
amazing flying skills
There's another video on YT of an A26 dropping a skipping bomb on water from a much lower altitude. (Maybe 15 or 20 feet.)
The bomb bounces and takes the tail off the aircraft, which hits the water at high speed with 2 or 3 seconds of the drop, instantly killing the crew.
This was dangerous stuff, and no one knew exactly what would happen.
That was their screw-up. The minimum drop height had already been very rigidly set during trials, then some yanks thought they could do it better. Only they didn't.
kinetic friction energy producing light,or its several camera flash going of on point of impact for analisis.
Or just an overexposed puff of dust like in a later one... 1:50
About 5 million Joules kinetic energy on impact, just over the detonation energy of a kg of TNT, sufficient to vaporise a fair bit of concrete and produce quite a flash of light.
I knew British like bowling but this is just too much :P
That's some cool stuff right there!
LOL 4:53 was like: ‘Ah put that away kid‘ *slaps bomb*
Featured in the highly fictionalised film Mosquito Squadron using the last three operational Mosquitoes of the RAF Meteorological Flight ( I believe ) I don't think Highball was used operationally on land though .
the second mossie has 5 blade props on those merlins,ive never seen that before could they be griffen engines
Take another look. It shows 6 apparent blades but it's a ghosting artifact of the rpm and the camera's shutter speed. They're three-bladed props, standard on all Mosquitoes.
merlins in spitfires had a variety of propellors over their lifetime of development
@@raymondo162 True. The prototype had a two-blade prop, production versions had 3, 4, 5, and 6 (two 3 blade counter-rotating) props.
You put the people in that one clip, I looked back no people the previous ones hahaha gotcha lolzzzzz :)
Weren’t these used on the “Dam Busters” mission?
No, that was Operation Chastise and was a different type of bomb which was more barrel shaped.
I don't understand why you're asking the comment section of a YT video when you could just google your question & have an answer in a minute or two. What's wrong with you?
What isn’t made clear is that they must level off then drop, otherwise it most likely bounces back and hits the aircraft. Brave and skilled men.
J2s best friend. I seem to remember 617 squadron flying as low as 20feet duringg dome of the tests in the lake district. Another's interesting fact is that the bomb aiming sight was made out of a chopped up coat hanger and some nails.
Any sailor on a ship seeing a Mosquito comi g at you at 380 mph plus and dropping a bomb like that would have anyone looking for clean undies
The test bomb looked quite different vs the actually bomb. This one looked more a tube shaped form vs the actual bomb was a cylinder
There were two designs- Upkeep- dam buster bomb, looked like an oil drum and Highball- carried by Mosquitoes- designed for use against shipping- that’s what you see in this film. It was never actually used in action unlike the much bigger Upkeep bomb(dam buster).
If you look for Drydock 104 from Drachinifel's chanel there's a still of a Highball bomb, looking like an oversized golf ball
Works nice on flat ground or calm water but how about in real conditions like adding waves.
Why haven't you just googled the Dam Busters' the RAF really did have some success using the skipping bomb concept against real German Dams.
Pretty ingenious for 1943
great stuff
Fascinating. A cultural treasure.
*Could you imagine being on a Nazi ship during WWII and seeing 10 of these things, skipping across the water, heading directly for your ship?*
No, because that never happened in WWII LOL
It would have been nice to have seen the inside of the ship to see what damage it did even though it did not explode, a 1mt round ball hitting at 200mph would have been devastating.
Wow it seemed to speed up after the 3 bounce an leveled off man that's fast .almost took the plane out
The Americans tested them too and one of their planes was taken out by a bomb on the bounce and catching the tail
...too low. There's footage of the plane crashing on here somewhere. A Douglas Invader, IIRC.
ua-cam.com/video/PCGpzRzY7fY/v-deo.html
As you say Highball was tested on the Douglas A26 Invader in the UK (Wells next the Sea) and then in the USA (Code word Speedeee), but the A26 crashed on test in the USA (too low & as you say Highball broke off the tail). The US then lost interest. Highball was also tested on the Gruman Avenger at Wells. 618 (Highball) Sqn were sent to Australia in 1945 (but were not permitted to attack the Japanese fleet as the Pacific was the USA's area influence?) before the atomic bomb attacks on Japan ended the war. The Mosquitos, equipment and live Highballs were subsequently destroyed in Oz.
Luv that cheeky Mozzy
Was a backspin applied to the bomb before release?
Definitely. They had it spinning in the bomb bay, then dropped.
The bombs are clearly spinning backwards in the video just we watched, that didn't happen after they were dropped from the plane.
The time in which it reached the target the enemies would already runned 200 metres.
You do realize that these tests were filmed in 'slow-motion'? lol
Crazy to see folks standing g down range from the point of impact. That thing could hit something under the ground and go off course. Hitting a person would splatter them even if it didnt explode.
They could have stepped out of the way, they were all watching it.
I wonder why this wasn't deployed against the Tirpitz. one of these exploding under the keel would probably have broken her back/
i guess thy could not get the run in
Correct. That's why Tirpitz was holed up in a fjord.
The Tirpitz was docked in a relatively narrow waterway, with mountains close on each side.
Midget submarines were able to damage her, US Navy planes attacked her, several RAF bombing raids attacked her, she was moved, reduced in importance and finally finished off by RAF Lancasters using the Grand Slam 22,00lb bombs from high altitude.
Look up RAF Tirpitz Grand Slam for the film shot during the raid.
0:50 Damn, that Mosquito has six-bladed propellers :-P
Whoa; triboluminescence from portland cement (gypsum crystals)! Also, I wonder how they were gonna fuse these things.
hydrostatic pistols for the anti-ship version. they were meant to impact the belt armor, sink to a set depth against the hull, and detonate below the armor. don't know what the plan was for the proposed use on land against rail tunnels.
People also didn’t wear a bicycle helmet to ride in the neighborhood back then.
Incredible!
The de Havilland Aircraft Museum at Salisbury Hall UK has an original Highball on show recovered from Loch Striven. It has a very nice flat spot where it struck the ship. You should also see the video of them trying to bounce them into railway tunnels. Very very dangerous for aircrew!
The tunnel trials took place against a rail tunnel at Maenclochog in Wales on 7 October 1943. A Mosquito flown by Shorty Longbottom and base at RAF Angle dropped 12 inert forward spun stores. Barnes Wallis, Rear Admiral Renouf and others vowed the drops. The thinking was to possibly use them against railway tunnels in Northern Italy. Explosive trials also took place at disused tunnels at Toldish in Cornwall and at Moss near Wrexham.
Some of the people close range were possibly the scientists of the time. Science is always about catching a good and replicable result in a sea of tests, errors and horrible fails
I have the wartime diaries of Lt Cdr Leo Lane RNVR (my wife's uncle) who was the trials officer for Highball ( also Upkeep and Tallboy). He recorded all the trial locations in the diaries including Ashley Walk. Barnes Wallis was present at some of the trials. Other on land locations included Porton Down and Maenclochog rail tunnel.
I wonder what the differences would be if they got the Bouncing Bomb spinning up to ten thousand revolutions per minute.
Why are you asking the comment section your question, don't you know how to use google?
@@autodidact537
Sometimes people have ideas not mentioned in Google. I like to explore every avenue from dictionaries to encyclopedias as well. Also my browser is Google Chrome so in effect I use Google everyday. Thank you for your question.
It's unlikely that an Upkeep would hold together at that speed; they were welded steel barrels.
It was also found on the Operation Chastise attacks that the explosive filling was asymmetrical, leading to serious vibration when spinning the bomb up before release.
It affected several crew's ability to aim.
Didn't they begin as Dam Busters?
617 squadron were the Dambusters using the Upkeep bomb. The RAF also formed 618 squadron for the Highball bombs flying Mosquitoes. They were primarily anti-shipping.
Based off the same principle as the cylindrical Upkeep bomb. Low level skip bombing with a rotating bomb.
How were these bombs detonated?
04:54 Knock knock... "Anybody home?"
It would be interesting how it works under wavy conditions!
yeh, I imagine the slightest of waves would send it all over the place
Back in the days there were no phones so people had lots of fun even in the millitary division. See they even did skipping bombs
Did it have a back spin on the ground tests also ?
Yes. As is clearly visible in the video.
What sort of fusing did it have to withstand the bounce and possible direct hit on a solid ship?
Description says there were no explosives in them. Damage was just by the energy of a big steel ball going 200 mph.
@@mikemason746 was that just the prototype?
If it hit above waterline it wouldn't cause great damage enough to sink a ship as they have watertight bulkheads.
Try think about Titanic hitting immovable iceberg.
@@mikemason746 last part of film explains the bomb would act just like Dambuster bomb and with perhaps half ton explosive inside would break the ship's back.
OK for calm water but what about ships in big waves?
The bombs being designed to take out capital ships and the dams were basically depth charges. For attacks on ships they were designed to stop on impact with the vessel, drop down and would move under the ship due to the residual spin then break the back of the ship.
All Highball trials stores were inert (The same with the dam busting Upkeep weapon-apart from one!). The fuses were set off by water pressure. The Highball was meant to strike the ships hull on its armoured belt and then due to the rotation, crawl under the hull to where there was little armour before the pressure fuse operated and detonated Highball. On one occasion at Loch Striven a Highball penetrated the hull of HMA Malaya but that was never the intention.
A truly devastating weapon, too bad that once it was in operation the Italians they were going to try it on first quit. So they took it north after SMS Tirpitz, but she got sunk by a Tall-Boy first. So they packed up and went to the Pacific, but by the time they arrived pretty much all Japanese surfaces ships were sunk and two Cities were evaporated... o_0
One might wonder if the world at large just didn't want to get hit by a bouncing "Highball"... >_
If it were not for the bouncing bomb you would be goosestepping and murdering even more poor innocent jews. Read your history books.
@@paullee5573 the Dam-Buster were a shock to the Hun. which squadron was it again???
@@ditzydoo4378 If I remember correctly it was 617 squadron.
@@paullee5573 thank you. I some times get it confused with the old Cliff Roberts movie 633 Squadron.
@@ditzydoo4378 Yes, lots of people make that mistake. I do actually have some 8mm cine film that Barnes Wallace shot during the testing of this project. Several people have asked me to put in on here. So I will. But I cannot say when it will be. Watch this space for further details.
2:33 - if, as we were told, there were no explosives in these test bombs, what produced the flash of light?
i don't get it either. i've seen the same thing several times on one of the shotgun channels. exactly the same: high speed high-energy impacts. YOYOY??
@@raymondo162 The trial Highballs were inert but metal cased and rotated at high speed. The flash is a result of them striking the metal faced target wall which replicated the side of a warship.
The pilot was a best bowler for Yorker
Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it a 'Skipping Bomb'?