Most bombs
dropped from aircraft during the Second World War
ranged from 100lb to 4,000lb in weight. Barnes
Wallis carried out experiments in developed much larger bombs
and eventually he produced Tallboy, a
bomb that weighed 12,000lb. This bomb, also known as the earthquake
bomb,was successfully used against V1
Flying Bomb
launch sites and in the sinking of Germany's giant battleship, Tirpitz,
on 12th November, 1944.
In 1945
Barnes Wallis developed the 22,000lb Grand
Slam. This bomb was so heavy it could only be carried by a specially
adapted Avro Lancaster. The first one was
dropped on Germany on 14th March, 1945.
(1)
Arthur
Harris, Bomber Command
(1947)
We already had Wallis's 12,000 Ib. medium capacity bomb, which was
capable of breaking through the roof of a railway tunnel or a very
thick concrete roof, and when the success of this bomb was proved
Wallis designed a yet more powerful weapon, the 22,000 Ib. bomb, the
most destructive missile in the history of warfare until the invention
of the atom bomb. This 22,000 Ib. Bomb did not reach us before the
spring of 1945, when we used it with great effect against viaducts
or railways leading to the Ruhr and also against several U-boat shelters.
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