different bombs, different noises
 

Hello all,

I am not an accoustic freak, but I was wondering whether someone has come across descriptions which noise(s) a 4000 lbs Cookie makes during its fall down.

The sound of 'normal' (read: aerodynamically shaped) bombs is often described as 'whistling' but I have strong indications to believe that the 4000 lbs Cookie made a quite different noise, whether that be because of the blunt nose or because the projectile made little swinging movements due to its unaerodynamical shape.

Any help is much appreciated ! Many thanks in advance,
Marcel

Re: different bombs, different noises
 

Anyone listening to one of these on the way down towards them must have been very stupid or very lucky?

Re: different bombs, different noises
 

...or very surprised by the attack. While researching my books, I met an eyewhitness of the 8th AF attack to Speicher near Bitburg, Germany, on August 9th, 1944. He whitnessed the attack in the town and the bombs fell around him, luckly not hurd him. This man described the sound of the falling bombs not as a "whistling", but as the sound of a "sharp rustling" or a "hiss" sound was audible.

In various talks, he was always mad about film-makers, which gave their films "whistling" sounds for falling bombs. He said, that its simply not true by his experiences.

Best wishes !

Horst Weber

Re: different bombs, different noises
 

Hello Chris and Horst,

Thanks for replying, I know that my question was a long shot but the few known accounts of falling 4000 lbs Cookies strongly suggests, that the less aerodynamical cylindrical shape produced a distinctive 'rattling' noise.

Later during the war, when the same people heard V-1's passing by, they retrospectively remembered the falling Cookie and started to believe that this must have been a V-1 as well.

All the best, Marcel