Grand Slam bomb

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Royzee617

Royzee617

Tech Sergeant
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Apr 6, 2005
MK UK
dspace.dial.pipex.com
Found this when perusing the web....

Apparently when Lincolnshire County Council were widening the road past RAF Scampton's main gate in about 1958, the 'gate guards' there had to be moved to make way for the new carriageway. Scampton was the WWII home of 617 Sqn, and said "gate guards" were a Lancaster...and a Grand Slam bomb.

When they went to lift the Grand Slam, thought for years to just be an empty casing, with an RAF 8 Ton Coles Crane, it wouldn't budge. "Oh, it must be filled with concrete" they said. Then somebody had a horrible thought .... No!..... Couldn't be? ... Not after all these years out here open to the public to climb over and be photographed sitting astride! .... Could it? .... Then everyone raced off to get the Station ARMO. He carefully scraped off many layers of paint and gingerly unscrewed the base plate.....
http://www.gunnies.pac.com.au/gallery/grand_slam.htm
see also and related links:
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Grand+Slam+bomb&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1
 
That would have killed a lot of people had it gone off ... haha ... typical MoD!
 
What makes me laugh is what if terrorists had figured it out.... we don't need these baddies, our incompetence is sufficient sometimes. Read a book recently where a load of B57 Canberras were destroyed in Vietnam. Not by VC but by accident (dunno what). At Bien Hoa in 65 10 B57s were wrecked, worse still 28 personnel were killed. This is probably more losses than by enemy action during missions.
Another example was the loss of two B52s in a mid-air collision. Seems the refuelling tracks were all oat the same altitude. An accident waiting to happen.

I have been reading Robert F Dorr's amazing book 'Air War Hanoi'. Got it from a charity shop for a quid!
It goes on about how the F100 wasn't up to much. So they replaced it with the F4. Seems they thought the Phantom would fare better against the MiGs. But the early F4s lacked any guns! They had the Sparrow but the stupid ROE prevented them from fully being exploited. Meanwhile, the Migs could sneak in close and spray em with lead!

Finally, back to the Grand Slam. I wonder what modern plane could carry the beastie? C130? B52? Nowt in the RAF I bet. The Lanc was so far ahead of its time IMHO. I am also reading a library book about the 'Other War' Bomber Command over Germany in WW2 so expect some quotes from that.... fascinating stats of losses in Pathfinders Lanc vs Mossie.
 
Royzee617 said:
What makes me laugh is what if terrorists had figured it out.... we don't need these baddies, our incompetence is sufficient sometimes. Read a book recently where a load of B57 Canberras were destroyed in Vietnam. Not by VC but by accident (dunno what). At Bien Hoa in 65 10 B57s were wrecked, worse still 28 personnel were killed. This is probably more losses than by enemy action during missions.
Another example was the loss of two B52s in a mid-air collision. Seems the refuelling tracks were all oat the same altitude. An accident waiting to happen.
Click to expand...
Don't forget about the USS Forrestal!!!

Royzee617 said:
I have been reading Robert F Dorr's amazing book 'Air War Hanoi'. Got it from a charity shop for a quid!
It goes on about how the F100 wasn't up to much. So they replaced it with the F4. Seems they thought the Phantom would fare better against the MiGs. But the early F4s lacked any guns! They had the Sparrow but the stupid ROE prevented them from fully being exploited. Meanwhile, the Migs could sneak in close and spray em with lead!
Click to expand...
Actually that's half true. In the beginning of the war there were many problems with the Sparrow Missile and the sidewinder was actually in short supply. Eventually a belly mounted gating gun was installed on the F-4. The biggest problem for guys flying the F-4 at the time was prior to the Viet Nam situation, the USAF did away with any type of air-to-air combat training as it was deemed obsolete. Pilots basically went out on their own and trained themselves! Eventually that was rectified.

The NVAF used "sniper" tactics to attack US aircraft, especially those carrying out strikes. They would attempt to chase a flight of say F-105s into a pre determined area where another flight of aircraft would be waiting.
 
dang....you'd know about it if that one went off....and there's no modern RAF plane that could take it (the last being the Victor), i don't know if she'd fit in the bomb bays of the american hevies but there might be a way for her to be carried externally........
 
I think its really funny so bloody typically British.
Our local rag many years ago had a story of an old girl who had a 3 inch morter bomb standing in her fire place for donkeys years.
She used it to lean the fire irons against and it was still live, detonator and all, mind you it would'nt have made as bigger bang as the GS.
Good story Roy, knowing the UK forces if it had of gone off the poor sods on the gate would have probably been put on a fizzer for deserting their posts. (In an upward direction)
 
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