The Train That Brought Down A German Fighter

Comes under "sheer bad luck" this one.
"On the morning of 27 November 1942 an English train driver and a German pilot set off to work. By the end of the day one of them would be dead!
The Englishman, Charles Gilbert, took charge of his train in Ashford and set out on what he thought would be a normal day’s journey on the Southern Railway network.
The German, Heinz Bierwirth, climbed into his Focke-Wulf 190 at Abberville – Drucat, headed on a wartime ‘sweep’ over Kent. He was accompanied by one other aircraft from his Squadron which was part of the Luftwaffe JG26 Group. Their target was Ashford Railway works. which they were ordered to strafe and cannon shell, plus any other railway targets they passed over. Heinz had been with his Squadron for several months and as he passed from the French coast out over the English Channel he may well have been thinking back to the 19 August when he was the first German Pilot to claim a victory on the day of the Dieppe Raid. It was a Spitfire he claimed to have shot down on that fateful morning. He may also have been pondering on a day exactly two months before, on the 27 September, when he had his first ‘confirmed’ kill, another Spitfire brought down 10k N.W. of Calais. His thoughts would have been brought back into sharp focus as Hythe and the English Coast loomed ahead.
As they crossed the town they fired a burst, probably at the RH&DR station, and killed a man when one of the shells exploded in his front room. Then on, over the hill to Sellindge, where they strafed the Ever Ready Service Station, (now Bob Fisher’s Car Sales Garage). Then to Smeeth where damage was inflicted on rail track and Up & Shunt signals were destroyed.
Ashford Railway Works came in range of the marauders and a locomotive was attacked in the Down Sidings. The fireman was injured. Another loco was also hit, this time the fireman was killed. A man in a nearby office was struck in the chest by a cannon shell. A farm at Kingsnorth was attacked, a farmer was hit in the leg and a sheep killed.
Meanwhile Charles Gilbert in Tank Engine No.2365 was travelling towards Lydd at a sedate pace of 25mph when Heinz Bierwirth banked his aircraft and dived towards it. Shells and bullets poured into the engine, steam shot into the footplate area, badly scalding the fireman. The pressure blew the locomotive boiler apart, it tore away the chimney, dome and safety valves. The dome landed in a field 100 metres away. The explosion was so powerful it propelled a portion of the top rim of the chimney almost a quarter of a mile.
At the precise moment the boiler exploded Heinz Bierman’s aircraft was passing overhead. Tank Engine No.2365 got it’s revenge on the Focke Wulf for the terrible damage it had suffered. It was also some kind of poetic justice that the Railway worker killed at Ashford was avenged by a railway engine that had set off from that same yard.

The fireman of the loco was taken to hospital suffering from steam scalds, the driver was shocked but uninjured. An eyewitness saw the pilot, still in his seat, fall into a nearby field. Heinz Bierwirth was buried with military honours at Hawkinge Cemetery."
http://ryesown.co.uk/german-bomber/

 

Sheer bad luck or a little arrogant...should never fly over a target you're hitting. He wouldn't be the first to take a hit from an explosion...

 

Nice one MrH...There are a few videos showing large explosions pilots had no choice but to fly through...Imagine having to go to work conducting a train during those times...Pilots Pavlov must have salivated after spotting a train on the move.
Know there were FLAK trains. Must have been some surprise success originally, but weren't most trains in Europe doomed?
http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/ttt07/railway-flak.html

 

Not bad luck, cosmic justice!

 

Poppy-I love Lone Sentry....very good...old artists' diagrams and pics, old manuals, etc.....this article says ''accompanied by one other aircraft'' for a sweep...was that standard practice? just 2 aircraft? or was it part of a bigger group in the area??
good call Pops---they have to fly straight toward the target....no? they won't pull out ...have to get close even with 20mms

this 'modern' F4 pilot says he's glad he didn't have to attack trains...says you had to get close to do damage....they were dangerous to attack he says...but he is commenting on the defenses.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYTaddev6KQ

 

I've been curious for a while about steam trains exploding during WWII.
There is a lot of gun camera footage of fighters attacking trains. Often it looks like the engineer tries to vent all of his steam when he notices the plane coming. They'll be a huge blast of white vapor shooting out of the stack before the first rounds are even fired. I assume he is trying to lesson the chance of his boiler exploding but I don't understand how it works

Anyone know what is going on? I assume the stack or 'chimney' is venting the firebox. The steam is in the boiler. How does the steam get into the firebox to blow up the stack like that? Is the engineer instead dumping water into the firebox? that would produce a lot of smoke and steam up the stack but I don't know how quickly it would lower the boiler pressure. He would have to get it down in a matter of seconds.

And why do boilers explode when they get a bunch of holes punched in them? Steam pressure would go down. Maybe the fire tubes are broken and vent flame into the water tank? Same thing with steam warships sinking or capsizing. When the sea water hits the boilers, they explode. Why wouldn't the pressure drop?

I don't know the answers to any of this.

 

great question....isn't it because the balance of the forces is disrupted?? everything is in balance of motion, etc, then the whole process gets disrupted, ..and with mucho pressure inside, 1 + 1 = BOOM..?

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

wiki boiler explosions.....
'''If this boiler opens up to the atmosphere, as a result of a break from over pressure or other such failure, the contents are allowed to expand suddenly into the atmosphere. The rapid release of steam and water can provide a very potent blast,''

'''The energy of this expanding steam and water is now performing work just as it would have done in the engine, with a force that can peel back the material around the break,''

A: Coal hatch - B: Firebox - C: Boiler - D: Boiler fire tubes - E: Steam intake - F: Chimney - G: Smokebox - H: Exhaust - I: Distribution - L: Cylinders - M: Pistons - N: Crosshead - O: Connecting rod - P: Grill.

 

A hole or even a dent or crease will compromise the integrity of the boiler. If the holes are big enough then it might just vent through them but if they are small enough the pressure will create/enlarge the opening around the weak spot. If it is violent enough it's an explosion. The venting might appear as an explosion even if it technically isn't. A rapidly expanding cloud could be an explosion or simply smoke and or water vapor expanding (technically steam isn't visible). That would also explain venting ahead of time. The less pressure in the vessel the less damage that the escaping steam will cause. A sudden acceleration or deceleration might also affect the aim of the attacking plane so that's also a possible rational for radical action before the bullets start to strike.

 

If one could punch a clean hole through the pressure vessel without damaging the surrounding area, the vessel would just vent through the hole. However, the impact of a bullet sufficient to punch through the vessel is going to weaken the area around the penetration. The pressure inside is going to rapidly propogate cracks and the vessel will come apart violently, i.e. explode. If you shoot a full coke can, it will blow apart, and it is not under that much pressure. Reducing the steam pressure by lifting the safety valve may inhibit an explosion if pressure is dropped quickly enough. If the boiler explodes, its going to take the engineer with it. Venting is his last best hope.

The steam vent is routed to the stack (think separate flue inside) to get it away from personnel whenever the safety valve is lifted.

 

Yep you guys are right. I did some more reading (and remembering).

The key to the explosion is the water in the boiler. It and the steam there are under pressure and are much hotter than 212 degrees.
When something punches a big enough hole, or enough smaller holes to allow the super-heated water to assume atmospheric pressure instantaneously, it flashes into steam with an explosive release of energy. So the engineer is probably venting as much steam as quickly as he can trying to get the boiler contents down to 212 degrees so it won't flash

The diagram Bronk supplied reminded me what the smoke box does. Back in the eighties I asked a mechanical engineer why steam engines chugged or pulsed black smoke out of the stack when under load. I knew he specialized in steam plants. The pulse is caused by forced draft in the smoke box. The orange pipe in Bronk's diagram is the high pressure steam line from the boiler to the steam pistons that drive the wheels. The steam exhausts into the smoke box, which is also open to the ends of the flame tubes of the boiler. When the exhaust steam is injected into the smoke box (at atmospheric pressure) it causes a pulse of smoke up the stack and the draft draws flame into the tubes and smoke out of them and up the stack with the exhaust steam.

The ship boilers exploding when sea water hits them are different. What's happening then is that the very hot cast iron components of the firebox are suddenly chilled and crack and bring the fire in contact with the rest of the boiler and water tank water and also probably flash a lot of sea water as well.

 

I would not recommend firing a .50 cal MG at a high pressurized cylinder...machines have power and energy...when a monkey wrench is thrown into the 'gears', watch out....
you know how the force are balanced in Star Wars? it's the same thing
good call on the pulse, Dave...very interesting to me,as I tend to watch a lot of westerns with trains....started watching For a Few Dollars More on Tuesday which starts with a train scene ....I never even thought of why they did that.....and, I just got the movie The Train with Burt Lancaster Monday ! mysterious

 

5119
I think the RAF had similar trouble with the V1 Buzz Bomb.

Bad things happened if you got too close while firing.

 

Also one of the reasons medium and heavier bombers dropped from at least medium altitudes - a 1,000lb bomb could loft shrapnel 5,000 feet into the air....so a bomber needed to be a bit higher than 5,000ft when it dropped!

 

Wonder how high an exploding train would toss its' salad...would rather stand off with rockets- or was rocket range nearer than when the .50's would let loose?

 

Bout the same id say...start with guns and then fire rockets whilst still firing guns...

 

of course, once fired that's it.....no realigning and 'walking' fire into target like with the MGs or canons....could be fired in pairs, though....says it needed precise alignment..I read where optimal firing range for rockets was 2500 feet at 60 degrees....but he rockets' range is much farther.....but you can fire and 'forget' with the rockets...? fire then turn away ..?
what is max and effective range?? .....

 

Nowadays fire and forget implies the missile has it's own guidance on board. Otherwise bullets would be "fire and forget" as well. From what I've read rockets had a very poor reputation for accuracy but I don't know if it was mostly due to azimuthal or range or some more or less even mix of the two. That could be important vs a train which is a very large target in one dimension and smallish in the other.