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Luftwaffe and Axis Air Forces Please use this forum to discuss the German Luftwaffe and the Air Forces of its Allies. |
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#1
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Anti-submarine warfare
Did the Luftwaffe ever deploy a specialised anti-submarine bomb? (Everything I've read recently about anti-sub patrolling and convoy escort in the Mediterranean seems to suggest they just relied on the standard SC 50 and SC 250).
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#2
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
Just checked this old but very comprehensive study that identifies all Luftwaffe special purpose ordnance and no anti-submarine bomb found:
LUSAR, Rudolf. German Secret Weapons of the Second World War. New York: Philosophical Library, 1959. L. |
#3
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
Quote:
i actually saw that book when I was a kid and my uncle borrowed it from the Library but the only things I remember are the "wind cannon" and the rifle that shot round corners! |
#4
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
Hello Nick,
Gen.d.Lw b. Ob.d.M O.Qu (KTB available online) has plenty of references to these bombs. For example RM6/197 s.24 (0028.jpg) 10:00 about BV138 mit Abwurfanlage fuer LWB. Best regards, Andrey |
#5
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
I would say that it is a mine whose self-destruction system will detonate it if it falls on soft ground or too shallow water, due to the tidal effect, it can become visible during low tide, allowing the opponent to explore its secrets, or on hard ground.
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#6
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
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RN submarines in the Mediterranean were regularly attacking escorted merchant ships by day and night. The Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica diverted a lot of aircraft to convoy protection. |
#7
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
Nick -
TOCH cut me off just as I was completing a long post on this and I couldn't recover it. It covered the wartime development by the Germans of a special underwater acoustic/sonic detonator and Hexogen and Trimethylenetrinitramine high compression/blast effect explosives for use in bombs, torpedoes, aerial torpedoes and sea mines. Although not mentioned directly, that sounds like crushing submarine hulls to me. See Lusar, op cit, pp.229-34. L. |
#8
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
Reviving an old thread, they did have Flieger [or Flugzeug?) Wasser Bomben in various calibres:
Fl.W.B. 150 570 mm long x 450 mm diameter, 150 kg overall/c. 60 kg explosive charge Fl.W.B. 190 570 x 450 mm, 190 kg overall (as above but with c. 125 kg charge) Fl.W.B. 190 m.S. 730 x 450 mm with extension »Schale« (shell or cup?) "due to the dropping equipment", 195 kg overall. Guidelines for their use had apparently been issued in a document of November 1941. Source: Bundesarchiv RL 7-2/149 |
#9
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
Hope this helps.
http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/...er06_02_01.htm http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/...er06_02_02.htm http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/...er06_02_03.htm http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/...er06_02_04.htm http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/...er06_02_05.htm http://michaelhiske.de/Allierte/USA/...er06_02_06.htm |
#10
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Re: Anti-submarine warfare
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