Arabella-Cox
October 12, 2008 at 8:16 am

Leaflet dropping – Wellingtons

OTU’s used to use leaflet dropping as almost a graduation task. Often Wellington’s were used and I wondered if anyone in the group knows:

What height they were dropped from”
How were they dropped, pushed out by hand or some other mechanism?

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By: Arabella-Cox - 12th October 2008 at 18:59

Thanks

For the info – really useful. I also found an online book which actually lists the type of leafets dropped per mission per month or as near as they could get to it – very detailed!!!

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By: bazv - 12th October 2008 at 10:21

Hi Gellis…welcome to the forum.

In his autobio ‘One Wing High’… Harry Lomas (Nav)describes a ‘Nickel’ op to Le Mans in a Wimpy from 21 OTU Moreton in Marsh (prob 1944) .
They flew over the target at 18,000 ft and i am fairly sure that the leaflets were released from the Bomb Bay by the bomb aimer as normal.
I think that earlier in the war Whitley crews ‘nickelled’ the hard way ,i dont know about earlier Wellington leaflet drops.
I would imagine the dropping height would be variable depending on weather etc.

cheers baz