Can someone answer something thats puzzling me, this link is to a bit of Pathe news film of an 8th Air Force B24 unit that starts with a view of the target, at 30seconds the bombs start to fall. As they fall away what appears to be four rockets shoot past beneath the aircraft and off into the distance, what are they.
Doesnt look right to me for target markers or fighter escort contrails.
I did think they were the ‘Disney Project’ rocket assisted bombs, used on Submarine pens but these only fired at 5,000′ after falling as normal bombs for most of the decent and were intended to raise the speed vertically at the end of the fall. They were only ever carried by B17’s and then only on a couple of occasions.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=52718
Richard
By: mhuxt - 4th April 2010 at 13:58
Agree with other posters that the white streaks are not shooting past the camera craft, rather the camera craft is coming up on marker trails from bombs dropped by one or two aircraft just ahead. Also agree that the black puffies are flak bursts.
One of the “related clips” lists the target as Ludwigshafen, and Google Earth confirms this. Ludwigshafen itself is on the “near” side of the river. There’s enough white stuff there to suggest another bomb group had passed over previously. Anything that goes into the land in the bend of the river, the river itself or the far bank (garden allotments!) has overshot.
The marshalling yards in Ludwigshafen are below the camera craft very early in the piece and run perpendicular to the line of flight.
By: Al - 4th April 2010 at 11:43
Weren’t they just a visual indication of the trajectory the previous bombs actually took, so that the following aircraft could adjust accordingly?
By: hampden98 - 4th April 2010 at 10:03
Hi Richard,
They’re just the normal “skymarker” flares. Sometimes dropped in singles or pairs from a ship, these ones would appear to be from a couple of Lead Ships directly preceding the one from which the film is taken.
Interesting film.
Regards,
Graham
What’s the purpose of the flares. Are they just a visual queue to start dropping, or do they mark the target? What happens if the flares miss?
By: mike currill - 4th April 2010 at 00:00
I don’t think they dropped past the camera, they looked suspiciously like flak bursts to me.
By: Mark Hazard - 3rd April 2010 at 23:04
My question is: what is the object that drops past the camera at aprox 1:00:40 another similar object passes nearer at aprox 1:04:45 – neither looks much like a bomb.
By: Skipper - 3rd April 2010 at 12:00
Hi Richard,
They’re just the normal “skymarker” flares. Sometimes dropped in singles or pairs from a ship, these ones would appear to be from a couple of Lead Ships directly preceding the one from which the film is taken.
Interesting film.
Regards,
Graham
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April 3, 2010 at 11:26 am