Information on the 1930s B bomb?

[Sirocco]

Hi people,
Recently I was reading David K Brown's work on British naval design ( Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design and Development 1923-45), and here this description about what he referred to as "B bomb" caught my attention.

"During the 1930s there was much concern over the threat from the B bomb, which was designed to be dropped ahead of a ship and had a large air chamber making it buoyant so that it would come up under the
bottom of its victim.
It was conceived in 1927 as a 2000lb bomb, reduced to 1100lbs and then to 250lb in 1933. It entered service in 1939 but was never used operationally. In tests the B bomb was devastating
and no effective protection was found. Job 74 had a double bottom 7ft deep which was ‘no good’.58"

Unfortunately I could not find much information about it elsewhere, So I am wondering if anybody here would like to share some information about this B Bomb...? Perhaps its structure or appearances? Or maybe even test reports on its performance...?

Thanks in advance---

Sirocco

 

[jstar]

Weird British Anti-Ship Weapons of WWII​

Naval Gazing Main/Weird British Anti-Ship Weapons of WWII

www.navalgazing.net

 

[jstar]

Also: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/johhny-walker-anyone.38414/

 

[Dilandu]

If I recall correctly, Italians have a similar "oscillating mine", that was supposed to raise and sink multiple times using chemical gas generator and hydrostate controlling gas release valve. The idea was to drop such mines into the enemy harbors, so drifting with current they would go under enemy ships and hit them from below.

 

[DWG]

Weird British Anti-Ship Weapons of WWII​

Naval Gazing Main/Weird British Anti-Ship Weapons of WWII

www.navalgazing.net

'but British parachute technology wasn’t up to the task of stabilizing anything over 30″ '

The Boom Patrol* Boat begs to differ. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060008091

It's basically a developed version of the Italian Barchino used to sink HMS York, with the added twist of being parachute-delivered, with the operator aboard. Crank them up to full speed, point them at the target and bail out the back. A couple of the special missions Lancaster squadrons (617 and 9 IIRC) were due to fly up to Norway and drop them into the fjord where Tirpitz was hiding. It got very close to operational use.

* The Boom Patrol Branch were the RM swimmer-canoeists under Blondie Hasler, the name handily covered all the time they had to spend in the water training.

 

[DWG]

Just in case anyone's confused, the B Bomb and the Johnnie Walker oscillating mine are different projects. The B Bomb was pre-war and intended to be dropped very close to the target and only came up once, the Johnnie Walker wasn't so finicky abut where you dropped it and came up several times, in a different place each time.

 

[EwenS]

Johnny Walker was used operationally - once. During Operation Paravane on 15 Sept 1944 2 Lancasters from 9 squadron and 4 Lancasters from 617 squadron each dropped 12 JW on the Tirpitz in Kaafjord, Norway. No JW hits were obtained.

It wasn't considered a very accurate weapon to drop. Of the 72 dropped on Tirpitz only 20 were seen to enter the water with the remainder presumed to have gone wide. Most self destructed or sank without trace. One however landed on shore to be found in 1987.

 

[philip.morten]

Hi people,
Recently I was reading David K Brown's work on British naval design ( Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design and Development 1923-45), and here this description about what he referred to as "B bomb" caught my attention.


Unfortunately I could not find much information about it elsewhere, So I am wondering if anybody here would like to share some information about this B Bomb...? Perhaps its structure or appearances? Or maybe even test reports on its performance...?

Thanks in advance---

Sirocco

There is information about the 'B' Bomb in Chapter 2 of the AHB Narrative "Armament Vol I Bombs and Bombing Equipment " which can be found at https://www.raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/o...es/armament-vol-i-bombs-and-bombing-equipment .

--
Philip Morten