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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0531.PDF
MARCH ^ LATE JAPS : Japanese night bombers get a hot reception over Leyte Island. Three bombs are bursting on the left and, in the background, a vessel is laying a smoke-screen over the harbour. f/ARL Ten-ton Bombs Dropped : Air Attacks on Remagen Bridge : Bombers Fly Up from Italy ANY Germans who were in the /-\ neighbourhood of (but not too •*• •*- near) the Bielefeld viaduct, which carries the last remaining double-track railway from the Ruhr to the rest of Germany, on the after- noon of March 14th must have had the shock of their lives. On that occasion some Lancasters flew over and dropped bombs. But what bombs! They weighed 22,000 lb.— getting on for double the weight of the 12,000-lb. ones which had previously- been the biggest weapon in the E.A.F. armoury. In length the new monsters measure 25ft. 5m., and the diameter is 3ft. loin. The Lancasters were probably modified to carry them. The mere noise that thev would make in falling would be enough to terrify anyone within earshot; and one re- members that the Germans once used whistling bombs because they be- lieved that their noise would spread terror and dismay. If they believed that other people would be affected that way by noise, it is reasonable to assume that the Germans themselves have an antipathy to noisy missiles. But the noise caused by this bomb's BY ACCIDENT OR CHANCE ? : AnR.A.F. reconnaissance photograph- of the bridge over the Rhine at Remagenwhich was captured intact by the American 1st Army. descent to earth would be nothing in comparison with the noise of its ex- plosion. And as for the destruction caused. . . . One Lancaster pilot who dropped one said that as the bomb was re- leased his aircraft shot up 500ft. into the air. When it exploded he felt as if sonieone had hit him severely in the back. His bomb-aimer said that as he pressed the bomb release he was shot up from the floor, and came down with a bang which knocked all the breath out of his body. The devastation down below must have been terrific. It is worth re-
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