Johhny Walker anyone?

robinbird

robinbird

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Dad was involved in trials of the secret Johhny Walker bomber dropped during the Tirpitz raid but never knew how it got the JW name. He believed it was named after the favourite tipple boffins drank during drawing board research, or one of the actual scientists? Anyone know? robin bird ref Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment.
 
Could be English humour.

Johnny Walker was a self-powered roaming mine that was supposed to keep looking until it found its target.

During tests it might have wandered about as if drunk (the random walk of statistics is also known as the 'drunkard's walk'). It's not implausible at all when you consider the names of other projects such as MUSTARD.
 
Rhinocrates said:
Could be English humour.

Johnny Walker was a self-powered roaming mine that was supposed to keep looking until it found its target.

During tests it might have wandered about as if drunk (the random walk of statistics is also known as the 'drunkard's walk'). It's not implausible at all when you consider the names of other projects such as MUSTARD.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing footage of an anti tank system proposal in the 80's that did something like that, the idea was it would bounce around in a WP tank formation until it hit something hard then explode, I think it was part of the Assault Breaker idea.
 
An sf footnote:

Wabbler by Murray Leinster from The Wabbler

Wabbler by Murray Leinster: An autonomous underwater robot. (Text quote, book citation included.)
technovelgy.com

​
...The Wabbler lay in its place, with its ten foot tail coiled neatly above its lower end, and waited with a sort of deadly patience... It and all its brothers were pear-shaped, with absurdly huge and blunt-ended horns, and with small round holes where eyes might have been, and shielded vents where they might have had mouths...
Splash! The Wabbler plunged into the water with a flare of luminescence and a thirty-foot spout of spume and spray rising where it struck... It dived swiftly for twenty feet... Then its falling checked. It swung about, and its writhing tail settled down below it... and then slowly, it settled downward. Its ten-foot tail seemed to waver a little, as if groping.
Then it made small sounds from inside itself. More bubbles came from the round place like a mouth. It settled one foot, two feet, three...
The Wabbler leaned infinitesimally toward the shore. Presently its flexible tail ceased to be curved where it lay upon the ooze. It straightened out. Then the Wabbler moved. Shoreward...​
From The Wabbler, by Murray Leinster.
Published by Street and Smith in 1942​
 
Maybe the answer is right on my doorstep here in Liverpool. Dad thought it was named after someone or something to do with bombs etc but never sought an answer. Captain Fredenic Johnny Walker, the famed U Boat hunter, died prematurely during July 44 a national hero. The Tirpitz was sunk November 44 no thanks to JW bombs. Nevertheless, good to think it was named Johnny Walker as a well meaning tribute as boffins had great expectations for JW. Thanks for your interest. jw (2).jpg
 
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B Bomb. MAEE also worked on the B Bomb, Buoyancy Bomb, another anti warship bomb launched from the air. 250 lbs of explosive were part of a buoyancy chamber designed to stop under a warship and rise quickly. The tail fins and nose came off on impact with the sea which exposed a ring that armed the weapon. Swordfish were used for dummy attacks on HMS Cardiff
 
PMN1 said:
Rhinocrates said:
Could be English humour.

Johnny Walker was a self-powered roaming mine that was supposed to keep looking until it found its target.

During tests it might have wandered about as if drunk (the random walk of statistics is also known as the 'drunkard's walk'). It's not implausible at all when you consider the names of other projects such as MUSTARD.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing footage of an anti tank system proposal in the 80's that did something like that, the idea was it would bounce around in a WP tank formation until it hit something hard then explode, I think it was part of the Assault Breaker idea.
Click to expand...
I remember this too; a Horizon programme? The bomb dutifully hurtled around the test range before getting stuck in a ditch, which appeared to be a significant drawback.

SRJ.
 
SeaslugMk2 said:
PMN1 said:
Rhinocrates said:
Could be English humour.

Johnny Walker was a self-powered roaming mine that was supposed to keep looking until it found its target.

During tests it might have wandered about as if drunk (the random walk of statistics is also known as the 'drunkard's walk'). It's not implausible at all when you consider the names of other projects such as MUSTARD.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing footage of an anti tank system proposal in the 80's that did something like that, the idea was it would bounce around in a WP tank formation until it hit something hard then explode, I think it was part of the Assault Breaker idea.
Click to expand...
I remember this too; a Horizon programme? The bomb dutifully hurtled around the test range before getting stuck in a ditch, which appeared to be a significant drawback.

SRJ.
Click to expand...

Yep, thats the one......
 
Re buoyancy bomb. My understanding of the Johnnie Walker bomb was that it bobbed up and down, hopping across the seabed until it found a target then released hydrogen into the water column, removing the buoyancy and breaking the ship's back.

Chris
 
IMHO, that's no-where near enough 'bubbly' to inconvenience a 'capital ship'. You need something much larger, orders of magnitude larger, like a methane 'blow-out'...

IIRC, this finding came from research after a drill-ship in Gulf of Mexico hit a shallow gas-pocket, spawned such a 'blow-out' and foundered.
 
I didn't say it would work! It has caused a few semi-sub rigs to founder and shallow gas is taken very seriously.

During initial drilling operations from a floater, we have a bloke posted on 'bubble watch', which is an accurate job description, and an ROV on the seabed watching for bubbles on sonar.

Chris
 
MAEE RAF Helensburgh tested both JW and B Bombs. JW was found to be too delicate when armed for trials, so dummy B Bombs were used. On the Tirpitz raid Lancaster crews did not like having Johnny Walker as passenger for that reason. Re B Bombs. Chief Armament officer Dennis Tanner, according to his notes, described the 250lb buoyancy bomb as illustrated in the previous reply. MAEE trials were held in association with Fleet Air Arm Swordfish starting 29.10.42. Dad was the MAEE photographer aboard the target ship HMS Cardiff. Tanner concluded that in a real attack most of the Swordfish would have been shot down by the time they were in range to launch B Bombs
 
Hey Robin, on the off chance you see this, any chance I can get in touch for more information about the JW mines?

I've not found a great deal of resources online so I'm hoping you've published something more detailed about it.
 
Caliban Rising said:
Hey Robin, on the off chance you see this, any chance I can get in touch for more information about the JW mines?

I've not found a great deal of resources online so I'm hoping you've published something more detailed about it.
Click to expand...
 
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Like 'The Great Panjandrum' which, if it worked, would have blown very nice holes in the fearsome Atlantic Wall, you wonder how much was optimism, how much mind-games...
Certainly, there was enough coverage of 'TGP' to offer to 'leaky' allies to convince the Germans, who'd been on the receiving end of those equally improbable 'Bouncing Bombs', that Patton's Army Corps was heading their way, armed with such 'door-knockers'...

The 'Bubbler Bomb', though, would have surely driven the Tirpitz' etc boom-minders to distraction: Now you see it, now you don't ??

Sadly, it seems to have met the same fate as the infamous 'Tsunami Bomb' tested by US in Pacific. Its really, really big explosion was hoped to wash a targeted island's beach clear of obstacles, mines and defenders. Plus the Japanese might happily charge machine-guns while waving a sword or bayonet, but they'd an understandable terror of 'Harbour Waves'...

IIRC, turned out that the effects of such an device did not scale as hoped...

One unsettling thought is those 'conventional' explosives were not expected to work as described, but simply provide data towards possible use of those forthcoming, beyond-secret atomic whatsits...

Certainly, sending a dozen-feet 'base-surge' roaring up an invasion beach to engulf defenders and defences prior to a contested landing would have sounded 'really good'...
 

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