Barnes Wallis

Bouncing bomb in Newark

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There are several of the prototype bouncing bombs used in the training for the Dams Raid displayed around the country, but the good news is that there is now one more, at thr Newark Air Museum. (Strictly, this is actually the one previously on display in York, so it doesn’t count as a ‘new’ one.)
It joins a growing list of Dambuster/Barnes Wallis related artifacts on display in Newark:

– A Lancaster fuselage section from a 9 Squadron aircraft W4964, which dropped a Barnes Wallis designed Tallboy bomb on the Tirpitz battleship; 
– A memorial plaque loaned to the museum by Jan van den Driesschen, who tends Guy Gibson and Jim Warwick’s graves in Holland [Gibson was leader of the Dambusters Raid and Warwick was an Instructor from 1661 HCU at RAF Winthorpe and he was also Gibson’s navigator on the flight when they were killed] 
– A propeller blade from Lancaster AJ-S flown by Pilot Officer Louis Burpee, which was shot down in Holland in wave 3 of the Dambusters Raid  

If you are in the area it may be worth a visit!

Steady, steady – bomb gone, skipper!

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I’m told, because I’m not yet lucky or rich enough to have one, that one of the coolest things about the iPhone is the thousands of applications (apps) that you can download – often free and if not, costing just a few pence. If I had one, then what would be one of the first things I would download? Why, this game of course!
Afficianados amongst you will spot the game’s errors pretty quickly… A forward-spinning mine, a Lanc with a mid-upper turret. Tsk, tsk!

Recollecting Reculver

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The Herne Bay Cultural Trail got off to a rocky start last autumn with controversy about a poorly-worded plaque describing the Dams Raid as ‘infamous’. The plaque had been placed on a new statue of Barnes Wallis, erected overlooking the Reculver area, where trials of the ‘Upkeep’ weapon were carried out in May 1943. The wording has now been amended, and the rest of the Cultural Trail is nearly complete. One of the items will be a large mural depicting the trials. This can’t yet be seen on the Trail’s own website, but the work in progress is shown on that of the artist, Penny Bearman. 
I mentioned this BBC Radio Kent programme back in May last year, but it seems a good place to link to it again. It’s a first hand account of the Reculver trials, as witnessed by two boys who sneaked up onto the sand dunes.