Anyone know the size of these, could have been carried by modified Marauders, Mitchells or Invaders as they were carried in modified Mosquitos? The B-24 could carry 4,000lb bombs on external racks , one under each wing - does anyone have any pictures of this fitting?
The Marauder, Mitchell and the Invader could all have carried the Cookie I guess ( how successful is another matter though ), but neither of them were ever tested with it as far as I know. The Invader, however, was tested with another British bomb, the Highball ( a 1260-lbs version of the bouncing bomb similar to the ones used in the Dambusters Raid ), known as the Speedee by the USAAF. The Invader could carry two of these bombs revolving at full rpm with no noticeable effect on the aircrafts performance. This might suggest that the Invader successfully could have carried the Cookie.
Invaders with Highballs Intresting, I've never seen any reference to the Invader carrying the Highball - where did you read that?
"Douglas A-26 Invader ( Warbird Tech, Vol.22 )" by Frederick A. Johnsen. Six full pages are devoted to the Speedee bomb. The Highball/Speedee never saw operational service with the USAAF, but it was evaluated with an A-26C between 4 March and 8 May, 1945, at the AAF Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, Florida ( AAF board Project No. F 4480, "Program for Test of Capabilities, Suitability, Tactics and Techniques, and Comparisons of Speedee" ). A couple of pictures of the Speedee in the modified A-26C´s bomb bay :
Speedee bombs Intresting, thanks for that info... ...Speedee bombs could be dropped with the bomb bay doors closed!!
Speedee / Highball Probably the main reason that Highball / Speedee was not adopted by the USAAF was that in one of their trials, the bomb bounced up and hit the tail of the A-26, causing it to nosedive immediately into the sea (I have seen footage of this, and although it didn't say, I presume the crew were all killed, as the aircraft would have been doing at least 200kts). In all the testing of Highball done by the RAF, I know of no Mosquito crash directly (or closely) related to a Highball drop. The A-26 conversion was performed at the Vickers works at Weybridge. Highball was also tested with a Grumman Avenger and work was undertaken to produce a standard Highball mounting that could be fitted into a range of bomb bays, without having to extensively modify the carrier aircraft. I have read much about Wallis' weapons, but have not come across the Speedee codename before - very interesting! I have attached two stills from the A-26 footage - the splash is the aircraft's smashed tail hitting the water, and the end is inevitable (the aircraft is very low, even for a Highball drop). Cheers, Iain.
The Germans also messed around with the concept of a bouncing bomb. I they trialed the idea of adding rockets to the side to extend the range. As with the American efforts it never went opperational.
Re: Speedee / Highball Welcome aboard, Iain. The bomb was, according to an AFF report, "probably without ( the pilot ) realizing it, released at nine to 10 feet. Water conditions were rough ( two to three foot waves ) ... ". The accident probably lead to the Eglin test team´s statement that "release altitudes should never be lower than 30 feet owing to the possibility of the first ricochet striking the airplane when water conditions are rough", but doesn´t seem to have affected the cancellation of the Speedee. The war was at an end, the war in Europe was already over. The Eglin team found it doubtful if there were enough appropriate targets in the Pacific " ... which cannot be handled with already available weapons to make the use of Speedee an urgent requirement". They also felt that the lack of interchangeability with standard A-26 bomb racks would limit the versatility of the Speedee bombers and that the Speedee was less accurate compared to low level bombing.
