WWII bomber blown up by its own experimental bouncing "speedee" bomb at low altitude

submitted by ElonMuskOfficial from (gfycat.com)

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[–][deleted]  (3 children)

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    [–]ElonMuskOfficial[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    Correct, the bouncing bomb was first invented by British aeronautical engineer Wallis Barnes to be skipped across water into stationary targets such as boats and dams. It was successfully used in the May 1943 Operation Chastise to blow a German dam. This method was necessary to avoid underwater obstacles like torpedo nets and conventional methods of bombing had been unsuccessful up until then.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouncing_bomb

    [–]Sacksmack 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    There is an episode of NOVA on PBS all about this, and about people recreating the bomb. Title was Bombing Hitler's Dams and was once streamable here but is seemingly no longer.