And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Bombers B-25 Mitchell of the 12th Air Force drop their bombs on the Brenner Pass on January 4, 1945. Those like like big bombs.
According to Wikipedia, the ' H ' model had a 3000 lb. bomb load capacity, If those four bombs in the photo are all it was carrying, they would be 750s at most.
wikipedia isn't always correct. ask Pappy Gunn, he knows what a B-25 can haul. anyhow, the tail fins give it away. 200~1000lb general purpose bombs used a common tailfin assy with a mix of fuses. those look to be about right for 500# GP ordnance. the B-25s in the south west pacific carried sometimes in excess of four thousand pounds of ordnance but they did not climb to 15,000 feet. the herms used vertical bomb racks because they liked the small bombs to spread the devastation out a bit and could carry a lot more smaller bombs internally. but the herms did have some very large ordnance too. it really depended on the system used to deliver it. the british had lancasters which could carry unbelievably huge, heavy ordnance. one bit of kit was so large, it was necessary to remove the bomb bay doors to carry it. I recall reading of a 25,000# bomb carried across the channel but not much farther than the sub pens none the less, all that was dumb bombs. in this day of precision guided weapons, a 220#SDB can be launched outside a threat envelope and be guided by GPS to within 3' of the aim point. why use a sledge hammer when a tack hammer will do.
No, those ARE in fact, four 1,000 pound General Purpose Bombs-- which were the routine bombload for B-25J's of the 57th Bomb Wing that continually hit the Brenner Pass rail bridges, rail embankments, etc., as reflected in mission logs of the time. 1944-1945. Note that the "Package" Guns were all removed from the Wing's B-25Js, as they were not needed, freeing up hundreds of poinds of weight. I'm unsure if they also carried a reduced fuel load or not, though (I will ask my dad (Charles Wagamon), a bombardier in 486th Squadron, 340th during that time 99 & 1/2 years old as of this writing). I'm pretty sure he once told me that virtually every mission they flew over Italy, unless it was vs. troop concentrations, involved the usual 4 x 1,000 pounders. Vs. Troop Concentrations, they dropped Frag Clusters from a broad-front, linear formation, rather than the very tight (Double-"V") formations flown vs. rail bridges & embankments.
1000 pounders, by the looks of them.
ReplyDeleteCould be...at a minimum they're 750s
DeleteStandard 500#ers. B25 was a medium bomber.
DeleteThey wanted to do some serious damage.
ReplyDelete"Those like like big bombs." Not had your coffee yet, c w?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
Paul L. Quandt
According to Wikipedia, the ' H ' model had a 3000 lb. bomb load capacity, If those four bombs in the photo are all it was carrying, they would be 750s at most.
ReplyDeletePaul
wikipedia isn't always correct. ask Pappy Gunn, he knows what a B-25 can haul.
Deleteanyhow, the tail fins give it away. 200~1000lb general purpose bombs used a common tailfin assy with a mix of fuses. those look to be about right for 500# GP ordnance. the B-25s in the south west pacific carried sometimes in excess of four thousand pounds of ordnance but they did not climb to 15,000 feet.
the herms used vertical bomb racks because they liked the small bombs to spread the devastation out a bit and could carry a lot more smaller bombs internally. but the herms did have some very large ordnance too. it really depended on the system used to deliver it.
the british had lancasters which could carry unbelievably huge, heavy ordnance. one bit of kit was so large, it was necessary to remove the bomb bay doors to carry it. I recall reading of a 25,000# bomb carried across the channel but not much farther than the sub pens
none the less, all that was dumb bombs. in this day of precision guided weapons, a 220#SDB can be launched outside a threat envelope and be guided by GPS to within 3' of the aim point. why use a sledge hammer when a tack hammer will do.
No, those ARE in fact, four 1,000 pound General Purpose Bombs-- which were the routine bombload for B-25J's of the 57th Bomb Wing that continually hit the Brenner Pass rail bridges, rail embankments, etc., as reflected in mission logs of the time. 1944-1945. Note that the "Package" Guns were all removed from the Wing's B-25Js, as they were not needed, freeing up hundreds of poinds of weight. I'm unsure if they also carried a reduced fuel load or not, though (I will ask my dad (Charles Wagamon), a bombardier in 486th Squadron, 340th during that time 99 & 1/2 years old as of this writing). I'm pretty sure he once told me that virtually every mission they flew over Italy, unless it was vs. troop concentrations, involved the usual 4 x 1,000 pounders. Vs. Troop Concentrations, they dropped Frag Clusters from a broad-front, linear formation, rather than the very tight (Double-"V") formations flown vs. rail bridges & embankments.
ReplyDelete