Practice Bomb landing In Newport Essex Any Info Please

Ah well not to worry 🙂 thank you for looking .

Found it – however it doesn’t appear to relate to the incident you’re looking for:

F-84F 52-6544 of 522nd SFS/27th SFW, pilot 1/Lt John P Potter A02224951.
On 6th July 1955, time 0835Z to 1005Z his aircraft dropped six Mk.23 Mod.1, 3-lb practice bombs on T1 bomb rack near 53 degrees 17’ 47”N, 0 degrees 50’20”W, Rampton, Notts. No damage.

F-84F 52-6743 of 92nd FBS, pilot Maj. William E Charlson.
On 25th October 1955, his aircraft dropped 2 x 230-gal tanks and an M.21 shape, 20 miles NE of Great Yarmouth and one 450-gal tank 20 miles SE of Great Yarmouth after generator failure.

Second F-84F was in full ‘nuke’ config.

Thank you for all the help ,much appreciated.:)

I’m not sure if this thread is going anywhere else, but the TNA file reference which contains the info is as follows:

AIR 2/10518 RANGES (Code B, 62): U.S.A.F. range requirements: bombing, gunnery and rockets

I have a transcript of the ‘practice bomb’ incident taken from this file, but I know it’s on a notepad that is archived in the garage. I will eventually get to it, but it’s likely to be months rather than any time soon.

Hope this helps.

Had a look on Google Earth but can’t even find the glass houses let alone a bomb site. Just not my day.:confused:

I can see the glass houses to the north of the village, one mark in a field adjacent west of glass house

I will ask him so send me a link on the map of where they were ,probably not there now.I know Newport quite well and suspect they were built on many years ago.Thanks for looking,i will update you if i hear from him :).

Had a look on Google Earth but can’t even find the glass houses let alone a bomb site. Just not my day.:confused:

🙂 Thank you ,i will pass this on to him 🙂

practice bombs are usually only small devices

My understanding was, that a practice bomb was the same size and weight of the “normal” bomb,
but without any explosive charge.

I think I have a reference to this – somewhere!

It was (if memory recalls) a USAFE F-84F (81st FBW I seem to recall, but probably not from 92nd FBS, so that narrows it a bit more).

Trying to track down the reference may be harder, but I know it came from a PRO (as TNA was then) file on RAF ranges: 406th FIW at Manston was applying for a rocket-firing range in the North Sea. That was why I was looking at it – for F-86 research.

I’ll see what I can dig up, but I hope this adds a bit to the story.

practice bombs are usually only small devices

I did wonder how a practice bomb shattered 2000 panes of glass 🙂

Not being a bomb expert I thought practice bombs only had a smoke charge. Was this a small HE bomb?

Anon.

Get a GPR survey ? (expensive) . Probably too deep for a metal detector.