Precision bombing

“the greatest example of precision bombing during World War 2?”

No question, it was by the Americans…into a pickle barrel, no less, it was claimed!

Errol

Aren’t we forgetting Hpt. Walter Rubensdoerffer and his Erpro 210? August 12th 1940

Now Erpro 210 broke up into its four sections, and Rubensdoerffer himself set course for a more inland CH station, Dunkirk, north-west of Dover. Hauptmann Martin Lutz had been assigned the first and easiest target, Pevensey CH, right at the start of their run and dead ahead as they raced towards land. Oberleutnant Wilhelm-Richard Roessiger had been ordered to follow the coast east to the towering masts just beyond Rye, while Oberleutnant Otto Hintze with his four fighter bombers was deputed to knock down those provocative towers above Dover.

Lutz’s fighter-bombers dropped their eight 500Kg bombs dead on their Pevensey target at the end of a 300+ mph glide. They could scarcely miss. There was no opposition on the ground or in the air. Concrete buildings collapsed and spread their fragments widely, as if made of paperboard. Telephone lines were torn apart, airmen and WAAFs were killed and injured, smoke and dust rose from the craters. The noise was stupefying, and the awful silence and darkness that followed seconds later told of severed power lines – in fact, the main supply cable had gone.

At Rye along the coast, Roessiger’s foursome destroyed every hut, but as at Pevensey the reinforced transmitting and receiving blocks and the watch office survived though the personnel were severely shaken. The damage at Dunkirk, too, proved the success of Rubensdoerffer’s training: every bomb bang on target.

Richard Hough & Denis Richards Battle of Britain Hodder & Staughton 1989 pp142-143

Moggy

A small Japanese radar station at Adler Bay. The basic story is on this page but I can go into more detail if anyone’s interested because I had the priviledge of meeting and interviewing one of the pilots, Brian Oliver, before his death.

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2AirF-c16-8.html#name-021377-1

Didn’t the Axis air forces (or the Russians, for that matter) indulge in “precision bombing”? Regards Wombat

Personally I can’t think of any one Axis raid which could be called precision.

Maybe the dive bombing involved with the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse by the Japanese or the use of JU87’s during the Germans advance though Poland, the Low Countries and France was to a certain extent precision.

I had thought of a number of those raids.

It’s interesting though, that little reference so far has been made to axis (or Russian, for that matter) operations (apart from the Belgian Fort raid, which really involved paratroops rather than bombs alone). Harking back to my original post, did the axis or Russian forces engage in “precision” bombing?

Regards

Wombat

It could be argued 😉 – Devil’s Advocaat

Go on then. :rolleyes:

Edited to say – pretty pointless now I guess. Wish I could type faster! 😀

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That’s interesting Ant.

I’ll remove my tongue from inside my cheek and withdraw the claim of precision bombing for the nukes then 😉

Moggy

Ah but the Nagasaki bomb was dropped nearly two miles from it’s intended target, the commercial area of the city. Because of this, it is claimed, that the death toll was less than the Hiroshima bomb.

The Hiroshima bomb was very precisely aimed at the designated aiming point,the Aioi Bridge and it detonated only 550ft from the aiming point. However,considering the destructive power of the bomb,it can hardly be described as a precision weapon.
The Nagasaki bomb was not so accurately dropped,cloud cover almost prevented the bombardier on ‘Bockscar’ from dropping the bomb at all,and when it was finally dropped it detonated 2 miles from the aiming point. It fell on an military/industrial area of the city,rather than the crowded residential areas in the centre of town as had been intended,saving countless lives.

2 bombs

100% hit rate, no shorts, no overs, no duds.

Targets destroyed first time

It could be argued 😉

Moggy
Devil’s Advocaat

Hiroshima. Nagasaki.

Doubt if nukes can be considered “precision” bombing . . . unles you mean hitting the country they were aimed at! 😉

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Hiroshima. Nagasaki.

Moggy

You are kidding !!!!

Grand Slams on the Samur tunnel.

Hiroshima. Nagasaki.

Moggy

Grand Slams on the Samur tunnel.

Not really precision though were they, the Grand Slam was designed by Barnes Wallis to have an earth-quake effect, theory being that a near miss would have the desired affect.

I believe one did penetrate the tunnel, but this was probably more luck than judgement.

Grand Slams on the Samur tunnel.

How about the Tirpitz raids, even using Tallboys the chances of hitting the target where quite slim given the technology of the day.

Mind you after doing a quick google, I’m not sure if precision or luck played the major role in the 3 raids

At the end of the war a total of 854 “Tall Boy” bombs had been dropped, of which 77 were dropped in the three attacks on the Tirpitz in September, October and November of 1944 alone. In the first attack, two direct hits on the bow was achieved, in the second only a near miss. In the decisive third attack there were three direct hits and one near miss. At the third attack, 12. November 1944, Tirpitz capsized and had to be written off as a total loss.

Some of the famous Mosquito raids could be called shining examples of precision bombing in terms of one or more bombs hitting a very small target accurately. Amiens prison walls etc.

Unfortunately, if you go deeper into the stories, you often find that a couple of the other bombs took out a nearby convent or primary school full of Dutch people.

Moggy

There was a single Swordfish which sunk three ships with a single torpedo off the N African coast. Efficent, certainly.

What about the German paratroop raid on the fort of Eban Emel (sp…) in 1940? Like the Pegaus bridge raid, both these were precision ‘targets’ taken with maximum skill.

Otherwise ‘precision bombing’ sits with ‘military intelegence’ and ‘friendly fire’ as somewhat disingenious terms.

Cheers