COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER SIX DYING REICH
included a General's house and signals centre, I set out with a dreadful
hangover. Jimmy s farewell party the previous night had taken its toll.
Fortunately it was a peaceful trip, and for other reasons as well,
because several runs were needed to capture the individual targets on
film.
Napalm, that controversial weapon of future wars, came to us in
preview as a converted drop tank. Nearly eight foot long, and two feet
in diameter, like a beer barrel with a spherical nose and straight
tapered tail. Painted a brilliant red.
Another pilot was given the doubtful privilege of dropping the
first pair on the S'Hertogenbosch range - and I accompanied him in
one of the photo recce aircraft. The results were disappointing - a
series of nice clear photographs of a low flying Typhoon - but nothing
else. The igniters, wrongly positioned, had failed to work and the
target was drenched with 180 gallons of useless petroleum jelly.
Some days later it was my turn. I watched as the armourers went
through the laborious process of filling the bombs, by Jerrican,
through a large funnel. Twenty x 4k gallons per bomb, at 2k minutes
each, almost an hour.
Boscombe Down had carried out trials with the 90 gallon version,
and a smaller one as well, back in December. But no information had
reached us - and I had to work out my own dropping technique.
Despite their streamlined shape, the bombs had no fins, and they were
certain to tumble. I decided to drop them from the lowest possible
altitude.
The effect was most impressive. The fiery mass sprayed forward
and upwards, in a cascade of incandescent reds and yellows which
threatened to engulf my tail. Many years later I read the Boscombe
Report, which recommended a minimum dropping height of 100 feet,
at speeds not in excess of 290mph. However their cine film plots
suggested that I was probably quite safe.
The upshot of that demonstration was a napalm strike against a
strong point near Arnhem which led to my first clash with Butch.
Totally ignoring the non ballistic properties of our new weapon he
briefed us for a dive bombing attack. I could hardly believe my ears.
Driving over to the aircraft we had a stormy discussion as I tried to
persuade him to rebrief for a low level delivery. Just to make matters
worse the target was partly obscured by artificial smoke and Butch
revealed his indecision with a shallow dive, releasing above 2,000 feet.
The bombs tumbled all over the place. But my request to lead the
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