The Original RAF Dams Raid in WWII?

Loving this thread! sub’d

There’s an implication to your post that Barnes Wallis was somehow primarily responsible for larger bombs in the RAF. Is this fair on other individuals involved in the matter? As far as I know, he was not responsible for the 2000lb, 4000lb, nor 8000lb blast bombs (“cookies”) nor other work such as the B bomb (dropped in the water under warships and bobbed up to explode under the keel) or the Capital Ship bomb (which was something different?). It is perhaps worth mentioning that carriage of the 2000lb SAP bomb was a prime design requirement for all the prewar RAF bomber designs after the Blenheim – including the Wellington. Together with the rest of the family of prewar weapons can be considered responsible for the shallow and narrow bombbays of all except the Lancaster. It is perhaps relevant that the Wellington was the first RAF bomber to be modified for the 4000lb bomb, although that it was the only one so capable at the time seems to be the likeliest reason… (Actually, I’m forgetting the Whitley. Was that ever so modified?)

Perhaps the main problem of early war British bombs was less the weight – which basically differed little from anyone else’s – than the low proportion of explosive charge. Misuse of weaponry on unsuitable targets is perhaps inevitable in war, where front-line leaders consider it more important to be “doing something” than getting involved in detailed analysis of just what would be most effective, assuming that such were available!

PS The answer to the Whitley question is “no”. Though it apparently could carry four 1000lb bombs – not sure which ones they were, or is this a mistake?

This is the very problem that Barnes Wallis realised as early as 1939, that the RAF’s bombs were going to do little damage to anything. It took him a while to convince others they needed much bigger bombs.

Yes I suspect that chap in the film was Canadian.

From the internet (reg. the use of the AvRO Anson) “Additionally, up to 360 pounds (160 kg) of bombs, which could consist of a maximum of two 100 pounds (45 kg) and eight 20 pounds (9 kg) bombs, could be carried in the aircraft’s wings.”
Surely a dam cant be breached with two 100lb bombs? I mean, Blenheims had an issue with sinking ships with 2x 250lb bombs… Does this mean they fitted a different bomb load? And if they did surely it would be documented?

That newsreel footage is brilliant; although obviously staged for the camera, it is hard to believe that people actually talked like that, or that the audiences for this ‘propaganda’ found it remotely convincing!

Although you or I would be perfectly able to hold a conversation with them, and speaking for myself, these aircrew are only the same generation as my father, it is just astonishing to me how ‘alien’ they sound! Is the second returning aircrew member that speaks Canadian by any chance as I don’t recognise his accent as a regional British one?

Is it, perhaps, that the ‘dams raid’ was actually the bombing of Sylt, as described at

http://ww2today.com/raf-attack-sylt-after-luftwaffe-attack-on-scapa-flow

Just a suggestion?

It’s not a dam as one might ‘classically’ think of one. It’s a causeway with a railway running along it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburgdamm
I too doubt Ansons would have achieved much against the structure, but they might have disrupted railway traffic.

I had a look in ‘The Bomber Command War Diaries’ but there is no specific reference to the ‘Hindenburg Dam’ on the 13th September 1939, and in fact, no specific reference to the 13th September 1939 at all.

The ‘Hindenburgdamm’ isn’t actually a dam at all but rather an eleven kilometre long causeway, with a railway line on top, connecting the island of Sylt to the mainland. It is difficult to imagine why it was selected as a target for attack, although there was a seaplane base on Sylt, or, as you say, what combination of RAF aircraft and bombs would do it any harm; I suppose its principal attraction was that it was easy to find and that there was little danger of unintentionally killing civilians.

It wouldn’t even make a good target for an Upkeep mine dropped from a Lancaster!

Excellent find there Steve, thanks!

I’m sure Ansons won’t have carried much in the way of destructive power on a dam.

Newsreel featuring returning crews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_hoC43AVTM

As I thought, no-one else seems to have heard of the attack/s on the Hindenburg Dam either.